The Dystopian Utopianator - Redux - Patrick Rees

Opening - 12:00 AM - Thursday, 2nd of February

Artist Talk - 6:00 PM

Running - 2 Feb 2012 - 18 Feb 2012

Patrick Rees, 'United Front and the Dystopian Utopianator' (detail), 2011, acrylic, enamel, sealant, wax, modelling paste, putty foam, epoxy resin, clay, PVC, glitter, found jewellery, dimensions variable, photography by Steve Wilson.

Imagine some bad sci-fi television future when earth has been discovered by pre-historic aliens 1,000 years after the apocalypse has destroyed all of earth's inhabitants. Sifting through the remnants, these prehistoric aliens discover books about modernism, religious iconography, Blake's 7 and birthday cakes. Unable to read, the aliens use the photos in these remaining books to construct a shrine to the fallen humans, using the forms and configurations that they believe were highly valued by the now extinct species. Employing the motifs of the religious shrine, late modernist painting and sculpture and 70's and 80's sci-fi, The Dystopian Utopianator - Redux is an attempt to provide freedom from the austere concepts of order, harmony and collective transcendence, celebrated by high modernism, fundamentalist religion and fascist doctrines. The Dystopian Utopianator - Redux, offers the nonsensical possibility of utopian salvation through plasticine, fake fur and bathroom sealant. It is through the humour of this nonsensical proposition that ultimately I hope to celebrate the very human realities of our perpetual inadequacy, our collective existential conundrum and the pleasure of childhood play.

Patrick Rees graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in performance and screen studies from Flinders University in 1995. After working in the film industry (predominantly B grade) in Sydney as a performer and writer he returned to study visual arts at the College of Fine Arts at the University of NSW in 2001. Rees was a founding member of the 2% art collective in Adelaide and has been involved in a range of group exhibitions as visual artist and curator from 2007 - 2011. In 2010 Rees completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Hons) degree at the University of South Australia. In 2012 he will have a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Centre of South Australia - Project Space, and travel to Los Angeles to undertake an artist residency at RAID Projects.