Prime Mates

Collage on wood panel
195mm x 275mm
2011
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This collage is a playful but unsettling clash of glamour, mortality, and absurdity. At its centre, a polished, retro-styled figure is surrounded by symbols that fracture her glossy veneer: a looming skull, an anatomical heart, and a monkey framed like a prize exhibit. Celebration and danger collide — balloons hover over fragmented brickwork, while arrows, dots, and signage hint at an encrypted language of cultural codes. The effect is both humorous and disquieting, as though beauty itself is under siege by the raw forces of instinct, entropy, and subversion.
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This artwork thrives on contrast: photographic textures meet graphic icons, while a vivid red-and-black palette charges the image with urgency. Circles and diagonals pulse across the composition, keeping the eye in motion and refusing a single point of rest. This is collage as confrontation — a cut-and-paste rebellion against consumer fantasy, reminding us that beneath the glossy surface lie both animal instinct and the inevitability of decay.
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Wired and ready to hang.

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For the last 30 years I have been making physical, analogue, hand-cut collage art using only found materials.

That is an important distinction to make. When sourcing materials my work I do not use any form of reproduction, copying or digital manipulation in any way. All of the elements, all of the images that I use in my artworks, have been collected from the pages of magazines, books and comics, or from other printed materials like pamphlets, posters or flyers. A large part of the process of creating these pieces lies in the collection of the components. That is the thrill of the hunt; looking for the right pieces to fit together in order to create these compositions. Once found, the images are then hand cut from the page, most often with the use of scissors.

Once the materials have been collected and the collage has been constructed, my artwork then undergoes a process of varnishing, which not only give the collage a nice finish but also vastly improves the permanence of the item. All of the work that you see here has been treated with many layers of varnish and then buffed to a smooth finish. I often complete these artworks with a glossy top coat that gives each piece a shiny lustre that greatly enhances the vibrancy of the colours.

My studio is in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, on Dharug and Gundungurra country.