Van Dijk and Plowman put this convention on trial with ‘Rogues Gallery’, a month-long dual residency in creation of a large scale painting to be presented at Lightspace in Fortitude Valley as part of the Brisbane Fringe Festival’s Visual Art Program.
Two long-time Australian figurative painters line up the villains on this large stretch of canvas one by one, either to remain or be unceremoniously removed at the whim of a terpsy rag.
As if from out of a collective dream, Nic Plowman and Jan Van Dijk bring forth these figures from the darkness, coaxing them on to either reveal or conceal their part in the pantomime of Australian society.
As one character beckons another onto the canvas, so does the thread of a story emerge. And just as easily does one character banish another and thereby remove the thread of that story.
Just as a ‘Rogues Gallery’ is a snapshot collage of those who live outside the law, does this work live outside either of these artists’ usual bodies of work?
A rare collision of imaginations, this work stands outside and alone, both to Jan and Nic, and also in the collective darkness of a confused and befuddled Australia.
Rogues Gallery will be unveiled to the public at Lightspace Wednesday August 27 at 6pm.
