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DUO MAGAZINE IS PROUD TO PARTNER WITH PERC TUCKER REGIONAL GALLERY AND SHANE FITZGERALD, MANAGER GALLERY SERVICES, TOWNSVILLE CITY COUNCIL, IN A SERIES THAT DISCUSSES CURRENT TRENDS, MUSINGS AND INSIGHTS INTO CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTS.
THE INFLUENCE OF TATTOO IN ART THERE HAS BEEN a dramatic rise in the popularity and acceptance of tattoos, particularly in Western society, over the past decade. In Australia, tattooing has shifted from a ‘fringe’ activity largely enjoyed by very specific and, in the view of many, unpalatable subcultures, to one that engages the broadest cross-section of our community. Those wanting to get ‘inked’ now ranges from youth to the elderly, bikies to doctors, students to politicians, and on a cursory glance it seems the tattoos being created are also increasing in size and complexity. Townsville’s own ‘inked’ population is large and reflective of this trend. In fact, Townsville may be somewhat of an extreme example in its habitual tattooing. This could be due in part to the city’s large military population, an active music scene, hero-worshipping of tattooed local sporting identities, and a plethora of available tattoo parlours. Outside of these external factors exist abundant personal motivations. Given this city-wide fascination with tattooing, it was considered extremely fitting for Townsville’s galleries to develop perhaps the first major exhibition in Australia to analyse the shifting attitudes towards tattooing, and encourage discussion about the resultant impact on contemporary art. The exhibition, A Permanent Mark: the impact of tattoo culture on contemporary art, examines how the attitudes of those in the contemporary and fine art world have begun to shift as a result of tattooing’s gradual ‘mainstreaming’; much as Street Art has in more recent times been ‘bestowed’ a heightened artistic legitimacy by the gatekeepers of cultural merit. Some would say well overdue. Certainly the exhibition evidences a willingness of contemporary artists to engage or experiment with tattoo techniques and iconography. A Permanent Mark includes stunning works by 16 local, national and international artists, working in mediums as diverse as painting, printmaking, sculpture, film making, performance art, sound, and assemblage. One artist with work included in the exhibition is Leslie Rice, the now Sydney-based tattooist and contemporary artist. Being involved in A Permanent Mark is a 360 degree experience for Rice, a ‘spiritual homecoming’ of sorts.
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The acclaimed artist and Doug Moran Portrait Prize winner, who also owns and operates two LDF Tattoo studios in the Sydney suburbs of Marrickville and Newtown, explains he “learnt to draw and tattoo images in Townsville. I’ve taken it somewhere else now, but it’s still important to me that it’s where I’ve come from.” His path to the tattoo industry seemed a fait accompli, with his father beginning his own legendary tattoo career in 1959 in Fortitude Valley. Les Senior travelled extensively for thirty years, which saw Les Junior born in Liverpool, before the family arrived in Townsville in the early 1980s. “I grew up in tattoo shops, and it was always considered that was what I would do. It was never really a question that I’d do anything else. I tattooed for 10 years before I came to art school,” Rice recalls. Interestingly for a tattooist and artist of Rice’s standing, he sees a clear and vital distinction between the two practices, though this has not always been an easy separation to maintain. “Until recently, I saw myself as a tattooist who makes paintings, and now I feel like a painter who makes tattoos. At this point I’m pretty much semi-retired from tattoos because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to balance the two. You can’t ride two horses,” Rice professed. Rice’s leaning towards his contemporary art practice also comes at a time when he has become somewhat dispirited with the direction of contemporary tattooing. While he tips his hat to the passion of the many young tattoo artists coming through the ranks, he’s been around
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long enough to note a shift in the culture. “It used to be a sort of underground pocket of devotees but now it has gone pop. It’s kind of killed it in a way, which comes back to why I love home-made tattoos, because it kind of flies in the face of the pop.” In spite of the clear delineation between ‘Rice the tattooist’ and ‘Rice the contemporary artist’, the two practices are evidently and understandably heavily influenced by each other. Just as the practices of many other contemporary artists featured in A Permanent Mark have been, and will continue to be. I for one will look on with interest at the inventive ways they utilise the tattoo medium in the future. Rice is just one of the noted artists who features in the exhibition alongside respected local, national and international figures including Don Ed Hardy, Shawn Barber, Dr Lakra, eX de Medici, Ah Xian, and Ron McBurnie. This stunning contemporary exhibition has been developed in Townsville, for Townsville, and can be seen at Pinnacles Gallery from 19 June until 16 August 2015. 01 Dr. Lakra Untitled (Tab. 27) 2009, Ink on vintage lithography, 18 x 11 cm. Collection of Tatiana Bilbao 02 Lisa Reihana Dandy 2007, from Digital Marae 2001, colour digital print, 200.0 x 120.0 cm. Courtesy of the Artist, Lisa Reihana
DUO MAGAZINE JUNE 2015 duomagazine.com.au 109