Alasdair pops in
When
I was younger, playing around with miniature figures or dioramas
(placing miniature figures in a miniature landscape) was considered
kids' stuff. Now however, in this post-modern, post-Pop Art age,
it's become the subject of serious (if rather whimsical) art,
thanks to Australian artist Alasdair Macintyre.
His new exhibition, Elevation (now showing in Sydney)
even out-Pops Pop Art. Macintyre not only uses the songs of Irish
rock band U2 as the titles for his works (and indeed, the exhibition
itself), he also incorporates iconic art works and artists into
his carefully constructed dioramas.
For example, in the title work Elevation, Bono and
the other members of U2 lovingly tend Jeff Koons’ giant
floral art work Puppy. In (Stay) Faraway so close, the famously
reclusive artist’s artist, Ian Fairweather, wanders through
a forest of paintbrushes, absorbed in his mobile phone and Ipod.
Macintyre
has also drawn inspiration from a range of other sources, including
philosopher Joseph Campbell and the vast canons of art history,
to create his own universe in which carefully crafted figures
play out his own dramas and adventures as an artist.
As Prue Gibson put it in Art Monthly recently: “Macintyre’s
dioramas present a self-deprecating, comi-tragic wit. They are
coolly executed, thoughtfully conceived and intellectually quirky;
like Haiku poems, they are one breath, a single scene which encapsulate
more.”
Macintyre was born in 1970. He completed a Bachelor
of Art at the Queensland College of Art, Brisbane in 1990 and
a Graduate Diploma at the Australian Catholic University, Brisbane
in 1995. In 2006, Macintyre held several solo exhibitions and
has been involved in several group shows in 2007 including Hazelhurst
Regional Gallery’s nationally touring exhibition, Dream
On, Glimpse at the Gold Coast City Art Gallery, and 20-20 at the
Museum of Brisbane.
He is a five-times finalist in the Conrad Jupiter’s
Art Prize, and in 2005 was also a finalist in the National Sculpture
Prize at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
David Edwards
