Perfect From Now On - 22nd May to 24th June 2009
Brisbane based painter and sculptural artist Christian Flynn has made some big promises in his first Sydney solo show. The space his eclectic and monstrous works occupy in Evan Hughes Gallery both confirm and deny perfection in their frantic negotiation of 2D and 3D space. Perfect From Now On sees Flynn’s aesthetic sensitivity walk the line between beauty and grotesque in a resolute manner that refuses to make assumptions about either. It is this refusal to contextualise which situates his new work, as his artist statement claims, between two conflicting yet equal forces. Flynn believes due to the ambivalence of these visual forces, they are incapable of producing a dominant meaning, rendering any overarching concern muted.
Entering the exhibition, one can see this muted state at work. Every piece is strikingly beautiful and penetrates the gallery space in a fashion which demonstrates Flynn’s balanced aesthetic consideration. These works drive back the viewer by means of protruding planks and board whilst consuming them through a network of neon string that link in an almost cartographic system of connection between these massively scaled constructions. These protrusions are fastened to paintings featuring non-descript geometric and gestural marks in clusters of conflicting colours. Areas of texture are set against areas of block colour. Perfectly ruled diagrams are set against areas of action painting. White space is set against clusters of random symbols. Works mounted on gallery walls are set against other pieces that seem to completely defy gravity. In this way, one can see these conflicting ideas playing out through visual elements. They work both together and against each other to create impressively aesthetic pieces.
An equality of forces cannot be explored without addressing notions of symmetry, symmetry cannot be explored without addressing beauty and beauty cannot be explored without addressing perfection. If we take this exhibition as Flynn’s personal benchmark of his exploration into perfection, how do notions of beauty and symmetry carry when his work is so obviously influenced by Art Povera and a self-consciously grungy aesthetic? Although demonstrations of equilibrium can be seen in his work, these are still aggressive and confrontational pieces.
Believe it or not, the piece titled Portrait of the Artist as a Young Francis Bacon Wannabe/ 30 Year Old Fully Rad Art Knob Guy To The Power of Sick Suffering Erectile Dysfunction may be able to shed light on an answer. This piece seems to have started off as a framed abstract painting which has split into fragments and been impaled on two supporting planks of wood with equally haphazard media nailed to them. The work uneasily contextualises itself into the sculptural- battered with paint, stung by string and supported by the corner of the gallery space. Like his previous works, Portrait of the Artist… is unashamedly and honestly an act of self-portraiture. The exploration of self through the process of art making articulates ideas of perfection as not purely aesthetic ambitions but as personal affirmations. Through utilising a self-consciously disheveled method, Flynn attempts to comment on the human condition using himself as subject. The aesthetic conflicts of his work become personal conflicts. If Flynn’s artworks can encompass human qualities, they themselves become more human and counter intuitively, more perfect. The more precisely Flynn can visually articulate these personal bouts of anger, apathy, dependence, doubt, anxiety and joy, the closer he and his artwork comes to perfection. In this way, the act of balancing out these qualities to a mutable state proves perfection is possible.
Perfect From Now On is an innovative exploration into the tension between contemporary sculpture and painting through the metaphor of personal conflict. It is though these conflicts that Flynn articulates what it is to be human, and it is through these inherit contradictions he is able to negotiate balance in order to discover an enduring sense of perfection. Perhaps the most important testament to the success of Flynn’s practice will depend on where this perfectionism will take him to next.
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