Jason McLean
05 May - 31 Aug 2006
JASON McLEAN
"Back in 5 min"
Jason McLean has exhibited across a broad range of media over the past few years; drawing, sculpture, installation, sound and performance. While there are evident debts to Dada and Surrealism, Guston and Basquiat, his work is unique, humorous and personally and socially aware. Mclean draws inspiration from the constant stream of visual, aural, and textural information that engulfs us in contemporary life combining this with thoughts and images from the deep well of his subconscious and his own personal experiences.
For back in 5 min., McLean has produced a number of large-scale paintings on paper (one with sound), photo collages and a series of reworked found photographs and objects in a form of collaboration with anonymous artists and craftspeople. In the salvaged objects he has subverted the ready-made by drawing, carving, painting, and scratching into a number of common, if somewhat outdated items; fridge, folding screens, saloon door, 78 record player, ceramic dishes. A grouping of old photographs in original frames seems to complete this somewhat domestic ensemble, and they too are drawn, painted and carved, photos, frames and glass included.
The large works on paper highlight his strong sense of colour and line, but the scale has increased and they are more expressive and painterly then in the past. Small details and bits of disembodied text that fill out the work invite close inspection and serve to create the overall texture for the pieces. A number of photo-based collages in the back gallery round out the exhibition. In these, McLean has, in a sense, collaborated with himself, utilizing a series of original 11 by 8.5 inch collages, which he scans and prints out as ink-jet prints at 5 by 3.5 feet. These photo prints are then scratched into with a stylus and collaged over with segments of coloured vinyl, graphically layering the work and building up the image in a multi-step process, the result of which is a fusion of photography, collage and drawing.
"Back in 5 min"
Jason McLean has exhibited across a broad range of media over the past few years; drawing, sculpture, installation, sound and performance. While there are evident debts to Dada and Surrealism, Guston and Basquiat, his work is unique, humorous and personally and socially aware. Mclean draws inspiration from the constant stream of visual, aural, and textural information that engulfs us in contemporary life combining this with thoughts and images from the deep well of his subconscious and his own personal experiences.
For back in 5 min., McLean has produced a number of large-scale paintings on paper (one with sound), photo collages and a series of reworked found photographs and objects in a form of collaboration with anonymous artists and craftspeople. In the salvaged objects he has subverted the ready-made by drawing, carving, painting, and scratching into a number of common, if somewhat outdated items; fridge, folding screens, saloon door, 78 record player, ceramic dishes. A grouping of old photographs in original frames seems to complete this somewhat domestic ensemble, and they too are drawn, painted and carved, photos, frames and glass included.
The large works on paper highlight his strong sense of colour and line, but the scale has increased and they are more expressive and painterly then in the past. Small details and bits of disembodied text that fill out the work invite close inspection and serve to create the overall texture for the pieces. A number of photo-based collages in the back gallery round out the exhibition. In these, McLean has, in a sense, collaborated with himself, utilizing a series of original 11 by 8.5 inch collages, which he scans and prints out as ink-jet prints at 5 by 3.5 feet. These photo prints are then scratched into with a stylus and collaged over with segments of coloured vinyl, graphically layering the work and building up the image in a multi-step process, the result of which is a fusion of photography, collage and drawing.