suntrap

Ham Darroch

5 April - 8 June 2014

Canberra Museum and GalleryCivic Square, Canberra City | 6207 3968www.museumsandgalleries.act.gov.au

Canberra Museum and Gallery is part of the Cultural Facilities Corporation which is an ACT Government Agency.

5 April - 8 June 2014Canberra Museum and Gallery is part of the Cultural Facilities Corporation

which is an ACT Government Agency.

Hamilton Darroch

Suntrap 2014

Hamilton Darroch’s art frequently incorporates imagery andobjects from the mundane in everyday life – household tools,implements and appliances. Taking his cue it seems from thepreceptsofpopart,withitsfocusonpopularcultureandmassproduction in reaction against the western fine art tradition,Darrochhasremadeandre-presentedthingsfromthequotidianworld of work and domesticity. However, unlike much pop artthatcelebratesthetawdryglamourofadvertising,hissculpturalobjectsaremorehomely,atleastintheirorigins.

Darroch’smostrecentsculptureshavebeencreatedusingobjectslongexposedtotheelementsintheAustralianlandscape.Darrochuses colour harmonies and geometric patterns to emphasisethe vibrational qualities of found objects. His vernacular worksexploreperception,memory,representationandabstraction.

The centrepiece for the exhibition Suntrap 2014, is a 2.5-metre,brilliantlycolouredworkmadefrom40vintagerabbittraps,setopenandglowing.

Echo 2012-14 is a sculpture constructed from the remains of adamagedbasketballbackboard.SalvagedfromYarralumla,whosenameapparentlymeans‘echo’,itstoodfor50yearsintheharshelements;weathered,vandalisedandtwisted,theobjectwasnolonger functional but reminded the artist of a Constructivistsculpture.

Darroch has been responding for some time in his practice totheartofSidneyNolan,andthisexhibitionincludesaworkMrs Carroll’s tent2014whichisinformedbyapaintingintheCanberraMuseumandGalleryNolanCollection,Woman and tent1946.

Echo 2012-14

This intriguing conjunction of assemblage and reductiveabstract art is also the essence of a previous work, Diversion, awall sculpture composed of half-a-dozen ancient worn andcorrodedrabbittrapsinastraightlineararrangement,theirbaitplatespaintedinsimplecombinationsofblueandredformingaprogressivegeometricpatternacrossthework,likeasequenceofsignalflags.

Theredandbluetogethercreateacolourvibrationthatanimatestherustedmetalcontraptions,givingDiversionanalmostkineticquality; this suggestion of movement amplifies the tensionalreadygeneratedbythesinisternatureofthetraps,whichyawnopenasifpoisedtobesprung.

diversion 2013

Thework ismysterious, resistingastraightforwardreading,yetthe juxtaposition of its slightly incongruous elements seemsto promise some kind of narrative, driven by the signals andpatternswithinitssurface.

While Diversion’s strong primary colours in their geometriccompositions suggest hard-edge painting, there is also arelationshipwiththeintensecoloursandsimpleformsofSidneyNolan’sfigurativepainting.ThevividblueandredofDiversionispresentinthepoignantNolanworkHare in trap1946,wheretheanimaliscaughtinatrapsuchasthoseintheDarrochwork,andthebrilliantblueofitsstartledeyeiscounteredbyasprayofredbloodspotslikeeyeballsonthegroundarounditsstretchedform.

AnotherrecentworkbyDarroch,Moon Boy(afterNolan),recreatedonashovelthatartist’sfamous1939yellowsilhouettepainting,Moonboy(alsoknownasBoyandthemoon),aworkthathoversbetween abstraction and representation. This is a condition ofDarroch’s art, in the almost-figurative shovels and traps withtheir enigmatic past and spirited grunge poetry, now crisplydressedintheraimentsofmodernistabstraction;thetensionispresentandbuoyantanddynamic,animatingtheworkswithoutexplainingthemaway.

Deborah Clark

SeniorCuratorofVisualArtattheCanberraMuseumandGallery,Canberra,Australia,March2014

Suntrap 2014detail

Biography

HamDarroch(*1972)isanAustralianartistworkinginsculpture,paintingandperformance.

Darroch’ssculpturesreferencetraditionalmethodsofmakingyetshow a playful, subtle and at the same time critically–foundedtreatmentofeverydayobjects.

Darroch’spaintingsareinspiredbytheactionofeverydayobjects,Australianfloraanddiscardedmaterials.Hisimageryisuniversalevokingsharedhistoriesandexperiences,place,andperceptionwhile revealing a deep sensitivity to the optical effects ofgeometriccolour.

In early 2006, he completed an MFA (research) COFA Universityof New South Wales and in 1997 a Bachelor of Arts from theAustralianNationalUniversity.

In2002,hereceivedaNewWorkGrantfromAustraliaCouncilfortheArtsandin2000,aDevelopmentGrantfromArtsACT.

From 2006-2009 he lived in London and has worked as anassistanttoBridgetRileysince2004.

HamDarrochisrepresentedbyMichaelReidGallery

Echo 2012-14

Photography & Design Rob Little RLDI