Selected works from RMIT Culture collections and International Collections

Kevin Mortensen, Cassowaries, 2013

This sculpture accompanied me countless days and nights in Building 2. I have walked past it millions of times thinking why three identical cassowaries? They look so serious and so absurd, staring intently at the direction of the elevator like a giant two-legged three-headed monster guarding the entrance of the building. Or maybe it is actually an instrument? That you have to hit them on the heads to perform the most beautiful music in the world to get the chance to take the elevator upstairs?

Kevin Mortensen

Cassowaries, 2013

Bronze and paint

141 x 210 x 82 cm

Purchased through the RMIT Art Fund, 2013

RMIT University Art Collection

Lisa Roet, Chimpanzee Hands, 2007

The gesture of the Chimpanzee Hands reminded me of the palms of the Buddha in the TV series I watched when I was a kid. They are able to zoom infinitely, and no one can escape his palms, not even the Monkey King. One day I passed by and found that they were wrapped up with a note that said they were sent to repair. I was shocked, who has the power of destroying the palm of the Buddha? I must know who it is. . .

Roet Chimpanzee Hands, 2007.

Lisa

Bronze Edition: 1/6

Right hand 103 x 44 x 23 cm (irreg.); left hand 97 x 42 x 25 cm (irreg.)

Purchased through the RMIT Art Fund, 2012

RMIT University Art Collection

Bird Flu Mask

Bird flu, a viral infection that can infect not only birds but also humans and other animals. Use the Bird Flu Mask and give it to your beloved pets, enter a world without bird flu.

Stay at Home 2

Bird Flu Mask

Fabric, mesh, dried slime, oil paint, texture gel

15 x 5 x 23 cm

2020

Stay at home 2 explores the unsatisfied reality under the current quarantine situation, where my studio was forced to merge with the living environment. At a certain level, quarantine is an ideal environment for self-scrutiny and unconsciously self-questioning. The storyline of this video was based on my imagination and anxiety towards this period of claustrophobic aloneness. The work examines and investigates the world we live from a personalised absurd narrative perspective. It is an extension of my state of mind and myself in the current moment of making.

Video link : https://vimeo.com/417098630

Stay at Home 2 single channel video audio Duration 1’’35

03

Yeah?

Yeah? (2020), is an assemblage sculpture piece made up of waste everyday material I collected. Its form is very much dictated by the choice of materials, I believe it is during the collecting and finding process that the value of these object is redefined, not as waste, but rather as an idea or method to evoke expression. In another sense, the choice of ready-mades and assemblages reflect every aspect of our lives, and through our aesthetics, indicate who we are as a person.

Yeah?

Rainbow duster, stool, Christmas decoration, fake flower, glove, gift wrapping 20 x 55 x 60 cm

2020