The Shape of Things Hamilton Darroch
08 February till 28 March 2014
Hamilton Darroch - The Shape of Things The recent work of Hamilton Darroch with its forceful colour and dramatic lines could be referred to as conceptual abstraction. The large (over a metre tall) and smaller-scale gouaches combined with his re-configured found objects exchange the Modernist ideal of pure form for a different ideal. That is, the much less idealistic experience of the real world, with its built and natural environments, bodies, detritus, politics and pop culture. Darroch’s wonderfully vernacular works negotiate the territory between representation and abstraction. Equally, the work is imbued with the philosophy that colour is fundamental to the way we experience the world both biologically and culturally. The warm brush strokes of his yellow stripe series, Late Winter and Late Spring, resists the obvious interpretation of a hardedge style, and speak of a subtle eye. In these works the picture plane is deep, the harmony of yellows create shadows, and therefore a kind of plasticity is formed almost entirely from hue and tone. What does this energetic yellow signal? As viewers it is entirely open to suggestion and will evince individual reactions based on our own memories, intuition and emotional response. Yet, it comes as a revelation, but not a surprise to learn from the artist that these bright shapes with their soaring yellow are inspired by the fleeting beauty of the Cootamundra Wattle. Like much of Darroch’s work the Australian bush and his immediate surrounds are a constant source of reference.
In Moonboy (After Nolan), the artist has employed yellow again. This time taking the iconic Moonboy motif of Sidney Nolan, which conflates both the figure of a young man’s head and the moon. Darroch has applied his version of the image to an old spade mounted to the wall. Nolan’s urge to paint the Australian landscape is central to his place as one of Australia’s most renowned artists. This notion of mythology, time and space is central to Darroch’s appropriation of the yellow circle. The rust eating at the metal of the spade continues the metaphor. In recent years Darroch has spent time in the UK and Europe working as an assistant to the famed British artist Bridget Riley. Certainly, his in-depth engagement with one of the leading abstract painters of her generation has influenced Darroch. But so has his curiosity and research into the specificity of place and by taking inspiration from the everyday. The sculptural installation The Conversation is created from more found objects. In this case, the work consists of a cast bell weight and a Victorian-era gum brush salvaged from the River Thames. The weight, painted a splendid blue seems to evoke the sky or the void—a paradox of weight and weightlessness. In its extreme simplicity, like the best of Darroch’s work, he has conveyed a sense of the eternal and the discarded. Katie Dyer Curator, National Art School
Study 1 / Study 2 H 27cm x W 14.5cm Pencil and Gouache on table tennis bat. 2013
Study 1 and Study.2. Initial forays into colour theory relating to memory and the everyday. In these works I’m considering possibilities to make the colours appear 2-dimensional or to sit up. Paint applied to raw timber creates a floating feeling for the colour. The surface creates a strong ground and using objects adds another layer.
Fold study H 27cm x W 14.5cm Pencil and Gouache on table tennis bat. 2013
Glass H 32.5cm x W 36cm | 19cm between hooks Pencil and Gouache on table tennis bat. 2013 (Diptych)
After Goethe H 29cm x W 40cm | 24cm between hooks Pencil and Gouache on table tennis bats. 2013 (Diptych)
After Goethe After Goethe is informed by the colour studies of Goethe I saw in Berlin and Frankfurt. I sourced the bats in Berlin and they offered me a beautiful ground for the colour studies. The dark rings in the composition are in fact a deep green, which activates/ strengthens or lessons the intensity of the colour wheels.
Stuttgart H 31cm x W 48cm | See install note. Casein on Trowels. 2013
Australian collections, to my knowledge, sadly have no Piet Mondrian paintings. Mondrian’s paintings stunned our modernist painters, like Nolan, Boyd and to an extent Williams because the paint is really applied thickly and textured. Oa recent install for Bridget Riley I spent time at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, which has brilliant Mondrians. The trowels I collected while I was in Stuttgart and the studies fit for me as memories of the work and place. I love the patina of the trowels, their (worked) everyday feel. Important works recorded in the everyday.
H 38cm x W 270cm | 1-3 Pencil and Gouache on Slazenger Padder bats. 2013
H 38cm x W 270cm | 4-6 Pencil and Gouache on Slazenger Padder bats. 2013
Swag H 250cm x W 250cm Oil on canvas. 2013
The star colour wheel painted on this work explores the multiple meanings of the word swag. A swag is not only a travellers bed but an ornamental arrangement or festoon of flowers or fruit presented in grandiose colours.
Vancouver H 90cm x W 40cm x D 10cm Oil on canvas backpack. 2013
The backpack (like working with colour) is about the journey and possible directions it can take you on. It’s a very beautiful object that has lived a physical life evident in the wear on all its parts. The colour wheel is weighted cool/heavy, ie more blue-green-purple toned, I hope this colour speaks about the action of the object.
Sideline H 60cm x W 230cm x D 25cm Oil on canvas stretcher. 2012
I painted the field of colours on the canvas stretcher in the hope that it would operate in a number of directions. The harmony I’ve painted on the surface has a rhythm that can almost be tracked in its literal application, but metaphorically for me also speaks of memory and observation.
Gang H 60cm x W 104.5cm x D 27cm Casein on spades on painted yellow shelf. 2013
Gang is a poke at the Kelly gang. I collected the spades in Cowra NSW and they came as a group. There is a whimsy and nervous play in the angles/direction they each individually look in. I wanted to shift the mundane towards telling a grand tale and I am also interested in the colour of the yellow plane they are fixed to. Of course they are a nod to Sidney Nolan, much like my earlier sculpture Moonboy (after Nolan) 2012.
Propellers H 27cm x W 15.5cm Pencil and Gouache on Table tennis bat. 2013
Propellers animates three primary and secondary colours via introducing greys and the central grey green triangle.
H 38cm x W 47cm x D 4cm (3cm gap) Pencil and Gouache on bats. 2013 (Diptych)
This work is a nod to Jeffrey Smart and his colour planes, taken form the everyday. The vertical wall planes, with an altered sequence begin to dominate and activate the composition. They have a weight steadied with the doubling up of the blue. The oversized bats with their purple circles provide a great ground for the colours.
Star study 1 H 52cm x W 19cm Pencil and Gouache on bat. 2013
This work is an extended colour spectrum and the star offers a dynamic visual form for the colours. The colours modulate away from the centre and there is an echo in the points of the star from one colour to the next.
Colour shapes H 25cm x W 15cm Pencil and Gouache on table tennis bats. 2013
Purple Sun. Hilma H 26.5cm x W 15cm Pencil and Gouache on Slazenger Padder bats. 2013
HAM DARROCH Born Sydney 1972 Lives in Canberra, Australia Email: ham.darroch@gmail.com www.hamdarroch.com Biography 2006 Master of Fine Art (research) COFA University of NSW 1997
Bachelor of Arts (Visual) with Honours, Canberra School of Art,
Australian National University (ANU), ACT 2006- Assistant to Bridget Riley London United Kingdom Awards & Residencies 2010
Bundanon Trust Residency
2005
NAVA marketing Grant
2002
Australia Council for the Visual Arts, New Work
2000
artsACT Development Grant
Solo Exhibitions 2013
The Shape of Things, James Dorahy Project Space, Sydney
2012
Everything Nothing Projects, Canberra
2012 Goulburn Regional art gallery, NSW
2008-2009 ‘Load’ and ‘Slow Walk’ Performance’s in London, UK 2006
Commuter Project, UNSW, Sydney, Australia
2005 New Works, Mori Gallery Sydney, Australia Selected Exhibitions 2013 The Triangle, CCAS Canberra, ACT 2012
Summer show Karsten Schubert Gallery London, UK
2012 Come to your senses ,GRaG, NSW 2011 Imitation of Life, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Australia 2010
Ridinghouse Benefit, Karsten Schubert Gallery London, UK
2010
Something in the Air Canberra Museum and Gallery, Australia
2007
BloodLines curated by Peter Fay, various galleries NSW, Qld, Vic
2005-
Matchbox Projects, Tokyo Japan, Sydney Australia
2004 OK Commuter FIRSTDRAFT Gallery, Sydney Collections Bundanon Trust collection Brazilian Embassy Canberra Museum and Gallery Columbian Embassy Private Collections Australia Private Collections United Kingdom
Publications 2013
The shape of things, Katie Dyer
2011 Imitation of Life, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Australia 2010
Something in The Air,CMaG, Australia
2007
BloodLines curated by Peter Fay, Glenn Barkley NSW, Qld, Vic
2004
Domain Catalogue, Chris Chapman ANU Temporary public Art Project
2004
24/7 Catalogue, artsACT Urban Services
2004
Urban Visionaries , Peter Hill, Spectrum, SMH, June 12-13
2004 In the Fast Lane, Spotlight, Sunanda Creagh,SMH, 2004 Trainspotting Spotlight, Ben Cubby, Sydney Morning Herald 2003 Art Monthly Australia, December, Artnotes NSW 2002 Art Monthly Australia, August Artnotes ACT
08 February till 28 March 2014