Todd Fuller - Insubstantial Love Stories

TODD FULLER Insubstantial Love Stories 20 February to 17 March 2016

TODD FULLER Insubstantial Love Stories 20 February to 17 March 2016

Todd Fuller’s newest animation, ‘Unite project’, is a participatory artwork surveying a range of responses to marriage equality. Fuller supplied members of the public with black + white stills from the film depicting two men engaged in a passionate kiss. The participants were encouraged to respond to the image by colouring in the figures with the resulting images complied into a hand drawn animation.

You can contribute to the ‘Unite Project’ by participating in a colouring-in session for adults on Saturday 5 March from 12-2pm, as part of Art Month Sydney. Visitors are invited to sit and respond to the work through drawing, colouring, writing or collage. To date, over 300 people have completed their own frames which have been scanned and inserted into the ’Unite Project’.

Todd Fuller, ‘Untitled still 30’ 2015, charcoal on paper - unframed, 29.5 x 41cm

Todd Fuller, ‘A God for the Gays III’ 2011, flocked terracotta, pigment, 33 x 49 x 37cm

Todd Fuller, ‘A God for the Gays IV’ 2011, flocked white earthenware, pigment, 51 x 30 x 47cm

Todd Fuller, ‘Untitled still 74’ 2015, charcoal on paper - unframed, 29.5 x 41cm

Todd Fuller, ‘A God for the Gays II’ 2011, flocked white terracotta, pigment, 53 x 42 x 22cm

Todd Fuller, ‘Unite project - 1st Generation’ 2015-ongoing, mixed media animation - 2:58min, infinite loop. Soundtrack: Jesse Ledesma

We are comforted by the thought that ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me’. We tell children this in the hope that it will help them rise above schoolyards taunts and teasing. Yet those names or words do have power.

Especially when they come from a place of hatred, fear, ignorance or worse, stupidity. While sticks and stones may break bones, the truth is words can leave longer lasting scars.

The film was a collaboration of Hill’s edgy love of text and queer theory and Fuller’s own personal history and exploration of non-traditional surfaces for drawing. It was partly done while they had access to a gallery for another project and would sneak models in after hours in order to make this happen. Six of the sequences are of Fuller drawing/writing on himself while contorted, whilst Hill was the photographer.

The stills were altered to create an intense contrast, rather than Fuller’s usual balanced tonal range, which is a very typical stylistic device used by Hill to add intensity to the piece. The music was picked as it embodied the anger, frustration, anxiety and blatant ‘fuck this’ attitude that results from both of their histories as homosexuals growing up in regional Australia. The words are all derivative from their personal experiences with some being quite typical - such as fag - and others being more personal such as ‘barbie doll boy’ which Fuller was often referred to when he was 9-12 years old.

Todd Fuller and Amy Hill, ’They’re only words’ 2009, film - 2:42mins

B R E N D A M AY

G A L L E R Y

2 D a n k s S t r e e t Wa t e r l o o N S W A u s t r a l i a 2 0 1 7 www.brendamaygallery.com.au info@brendamaygallery.com.au tuesday - friday 11-6 saturday 10-6 t. 02 9318 1122