THE CLARITY OF HINDSIGHT

2016, Oil on Italian Linen, 60 x 50cm

North Sydney Art Prize 2017, Finalist

There is a permanence about making a statue. Broadcasting down the centuries, each carries a message from its creator about a value system and cultural aesthetic. From a world very different to the one in which we now live. 

Could these creators envisaged the contemporary society in which their works currently exists, a society in which all else is expedient before the alter of fiscal accumulation. With just a handful of artists deified and the rest marginalised, the consensus view of artistic pursuit is at best considered eccentric, but usually just a bludge. The frozen ideals of the original creators seem completely anachronistic to the current cultural ethos.

With foresight, would they have made these works? With hindsight, what should we make of them?