Art & Narrative

Darren Sylvester
Darren Sylvester is an artist who thrives on creative performance, whether it is being expressed through photography, music, film or sculpture. Sylvester’s artworks all display strong narratives, most of which are derived from pop-culture. One of his latest filmed performances is “I was the last in the Carpenters’ Garden (2008)”, in which the artist walks though what is a reconstructed version, of the band the “Carpenters” Garden. To view what looks to be an unnatural looking set up Asian garden, in which Sylvester embodies the modern day hero-worshiper known as the stalker, is fascinating after you know what it actually is.

 

Karl de Waal
Another artist I chose to rant on about was found by chance; who was chosen for Temperature 2: New Queensland Art exhibition (The Museum of Brisbane) Karl de Waal. The artwork that Waal chose to exhibit is called “Quilt for Melanie (2008)”, which is a collage of notes sewn together and is dedicated to the artists’ niece who committed suicide a year ago. The notes are in fact shopping lists, phone numbers, post-its etc. with a very simple narrative expressed: the most basic of communication these days, is lost and if you view the artwork long enough, you may find out the why to the narrative. I found this to be a very warm and loving artwork, executed carefully to support the narrative.