Interview: Jason Parker

Where some would view shyness as a social hindrance, artist Jason Parker has used it as a frame within which to build a melancholic painting style that defines his art and – to some extent – his life.

Makers first met Jason in a shared creative studio after spying samples of his work resting half-complete. Painted in oils, the studies of his subjects are stirring for a suspended sense of loneliness.

Jason: “People are the main story in my work. I’m obsessed with watching my fellow man, I love watching interactions between groups of friends and I often find myself staring at people until it becomes…maybe creepy. I think it’s because I’m such an introvert that I feel a bit of a disconnect and by painting them it creates a connection in you to something bigger.”

There is a fine nuance to the tone of his canvases that is wrought by the creative tension between painter and subject. Caught in benign poses, one is never sure if the sense of menacing emotional darkness depicted is the state of the study, or the projection of the artist.

It’s a conflict Jason himself is open in recognising

Jason: “I attach my own sense of loneliness and vulnerability to the subjects. Whether that comes from the subjects I choose or whether that is me putting my stamp on them, that’s hard to say. What I can say is there is a recurring theme of loneliness and longing in my works.”

Having only recently made the transition from acrylics to oils, the 25-year-old is still deep in the process of defining his artistic voice and developing his craft: trained as a graphic designer, he is in the process of consciously moving away from compulsions to create beautiful composition and instead to work on production of pieces that hold the essence of a feeling derived – not from the subject – but from his subconscious.

The response to his vision, so far, has been encouraging: having last year rented a space to show his work, the selling of some 80 percent of paintings exhibited served to strengthen his self-belief. One must imagine it’s a spark that continues to flame as others within the Melbourne art scene also begin to take an interest: on July 25, his paintings will be on display at Off The Kerb gallery and studios on Johnstone Street in his first commissioned exhibition.

Jason: “I’m turning 26 this year so I’ve taken a huge step back to reassess what I want to do and – with art – it’s almost like, if I don’t give it a go now it will never happen for me. I guess all of this affirms that this is what I should devote myself towards."

Interview: Inge King

Rare is the artist whose expanse of career is laid before the eyes of the public with a retrospective shown at a gallery of international standing. Even more rare is the artist who is still alive to receive the acknowledgement. But then, explains National Gallery of Victoria curator David Hurlston, 98-year-old sculptor Inge King has never been someone content to live a life of mediocrity.

David: “It’s one of those weird terms that is over used but, in terms of Inge, it is hard not to call her a living legend given the role she has played in the development of sculpture in this country in the modern tradition.”

Inge arrived in Australia in 1951 and still lives in Warrandyte in the Robyn Boyd-designed home she shared with her late husband and fellow sculptor, Grahame King, since 1952.

She is an artist who David describes as being free from adherence to specific schools of artistic theory, instead moving between eras spent working in the realms of both figurative and abstract sculpture. 

'Forward Surge' 1972 by Inge King at the Melbourne Arts Centre

David: “She is hard to pin down in that sense. Once after a trip to Northern Australia she did a whole series of bronze cast birds, inspired by the great flocks in flight. In the ‘60s you look at the steel assemblages and the welded steel abstract sculptures. In the 1970s she was much more refined but still abstract and in the 1990s she went back to figure with her bronze casting.”

The unbroken years of her work have only recently come to an end, with Inge remaining a working sculptor in to her 90s: just prior to the exhibition’s May launch, she remained active in overseeing the creation of her monumental sculptures, one of which arrived prior to the showing in the back of a truck straight from the fabricator.

Yet while age may have thrown a net of limitations over her physical artistic practice, Inge still very much retains a bonded connection to her endeavours.

David: “She was in yesterday with some of her friends and she went for a bit of a walk around; she is amazing in that she hasn’t lost any of her mental agility and remembers everything. Inge was recalling dates of works off the top of her head and they were precise every time. It goes to show the investment she has.”

INGE KING Constellation is showing at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square until August 31. Entry is free.

Rings of Saturn, 2009 Heidelberg, Victoria

Interview: Dion Horstmans

Dion Horstmans portrait by Jay Harrison

As Makers writes, cranes are getting down to business in Melbourne’s Collins Square. For the next few weeks, workers will be putting in place a 91-piece steel sculpture weighing some 59 tonnes – it is Super Sonic, the latest in a line of striking public works by Sydney sculptor Dion Horstmans.

Known for his beguiling use of shadow, lines and silhouette, the one-time prop maker who worked on a host of big budget American films (“I left film after ‘Superman’ in the early 2000s, I was disillusioned by the industry”) has birthed new life as an artist whose affinity with Melbourne runs deep.

Indeed Flinders Lane Gallery was the first to pick him up in the wake of his career shift following gallery director Claire Harris’ chance encounter of an email Dion sent containing images of his work. His strong signature struck a chord.

Since then, Dion has gone on to become a veteran participant of Sculpture by the Sea while another of his works, Tron, arrests the eye on the ceiling of Boheme at Bondi Beach.

But Super Sonic is, for the one-time fishing boat worker, a whole new kettle of fish.

Dion: “Super Sonic is based on a F-18 fighter jet at the moment it breaks the speed of sound, hence the name – it’s the sonic boom. I imagine the wings partially fragment to expand and transform… going up… we’re using cranes… it’s a beast.”

Horstmans' sculpture 'Super Sonic' undergoes construction in Collins Square. Photo provided by Hassell Studio

Growing up between New Zealand and the Cook Islands, Dion’s work is heavily influenced by the tribal motifs that surrounded him as a child. As he explains it, the strong geometric element now present in much of his art has developed in response to a keen interest in ethno-graphics.

Dion: “I started drawing and moved in to 3-D forms about 18 years ago. The geometric works that I’m playing with now happened in response to these: I was drawing inspiration from tribal figures and patterns, the figures became large square panels, then they became uniform shapes placed randomly within a grid, then they became lines… push it a little more and they become stretched and elongated. It’s a journey, I’m enjoying it. Two steps forward, one back.”

One could argue there is very little on the backward slide for an artist that has not only found his passion, but a responsive and engaged audience.

The artist himself confesses to finding intense pleasure in both the creative and constructive process, the hot metal flying: “It burns, it hurts, it’s loud, it’s aggressive – I liken it to war. The noise rattles me, the grinder vibrates in my hand… I love it.”

That such a cacophony produces works of enthralling elegance inspires a great curiosity that will make his an important addition to what Dion himself refers to as Melbourne’s “iconic public art scene”.

Super Sonic is scheduled to be finished installation by end June.

A piece from Horstman's 'Voltage' 2013 exhibition at Flinders Lane Gallery

photo by Hannah Edwards

‘Voltage’ at Boheme in Bondi. Photo by Jay Harrison