| |
n
Australian born Gary Shaw received a Masters in Fine Art
from the University of Ulster, and has subsequently exhibited
in the U.S., France, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia and
Ireland. He now resides in Belfast working at the Queen
Street Studios.
A Day at the Races is a number of small colourful abstract
works based on jockey’s silks. Gary describes his
work as a marrying of popular culture and abstract paintings.
|
|
‘
My work to date has explored the relationship between
personal and social histories. The development of our
sense of ‘self’ is to a greater or lesser
extent shaped by our experience of social institutions.
The imagery associated with certain historical traditions
can form a fundamental part of our emotional landscape.’
In previous work I have explored imagery associated
with educational, military and religious institutions.
This body of work entitled ‘Minutia’ is based
on ‘Natural History’ imagery, in particular
the museum ‘diorama’ exhibits popular in the
1950s. This type of exhibit mixed three dimensional
and two dimensional elements to create an imaginary
tableaux, often more fictional than factual. This desire
to capture the public through imaginative speculation
and virtual experience is increasingly evident in contemporary
museum strategies.
In this series of colour photographs I am interested
in these borderlines between reality and fantasy, past
and present, memory and nostalgia.
Moira McIvor
April 2001.
|
|
