Summary
I make art that is rough and messy. I was trained as a performer at acting school and this informs my process as a visual artist. I use elements of humour and satire.
HIT ME AS HARD AS YOU CAN: The Carnivalesque Against Australian Nationalism.
Australia has a long history of phobic nationalism which utilises any instance of global economic insecurity to scapegoat whichever individual strays too far from what has long been established as the normative white-anglo base. In the 21st century examples of these xenephobic riots include the Cronulla race riots in 2005 or the ‘March for Australia’ rallies of August 2025. According to those involved in these events, the greatest threat to the “Australian way of life” can range from Asians, Muslims, trans people, queer people or whatever the current ‘other of the day’ happens to be, a notion revitalised after a long colonial settler history by Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
This practice-led research project aims to unpack Australian nationalism’s predilection for racist and homophobic vilification via crude satire, the grotesque and ridiculous explorations of nationalism through painting, drawing and performative work. Using my disciplinary experience and history as a performer I have built my visual practices from a ‘performative’ base, utilising broad gestural painting in combination with large-scale works. I also draw on the writing of Mikhail Bakhtin and his theory of the Carnivalesque so as to articulate a language of satire and humour with which nationalism can be curdled. Artistically, my aesthetic and economic interest is reflected in the use of cheap materials such as low quality paint and repurposed newspaper in place of canvas. Due to the work’s ‘cheap’ quality I create a multitude of works quickly that can then be discarded. This practice ties together the ephemeral nature of performance and weds the potentially transient and shifting nature of nationalism within my materials and processes. Via these methods, the research seeks to uncover in what ways the Carnivalesque can effectively combat phobic Australian nationalism.