Patrick Dagg - Basil Papoutsidis - Painting | Collage | Sculpture - Friday 1 November - Saturday 23 November 2024

pieces

pieces is a body of work developed over the past 7 years that encompasses the multi faceted nature of my practice. From collage to gestural abstraction, representation to symbolism, I am searching for a visual language that articulates ongoing themes such as death, remembrance and value.

The earlier works in the show explore the nature of painting in relation to graffiti and vandalism, with textured surfaces built up and taken away to build a patina reminiscent of urban decay. There is an attempt to subvert the historical nature of painting through the use of non-traditional material and embracing aesthetics usually deemed “low”.

As this body of work developed, there began recurring symbols such as faces, shapes and coded figures which stood to represent personal histories, as well as reference to source material such as graffiti and art history.  The death of my father 17 years ago is embedded in the work, as a practice of grieving, renewal and searching; making pictures to try and make sense of the world around me.

Later works use screen printing as a vehicle to explore more specific ideas of figuration through visual metaphors or “stand in’s” that are able to be more intentional. Using images found in films, auction catalogues and the internet at large, I’m able to create works with  tension and personal significance. Referencing films that I watched with my late father as a way of reliving and remembrance, I merged them with mark-making and text.

To see these works together is a joy, and despite a changing aesthetic, I feel these works are all anchored in the same ongoing concerns. They are fragments. Pieces of time. And they hope to form a whole.

Patrick Dagg, artist