SEAN BAILEY
DAN BELL
NATHAN GRAY
MICHELLE HANLIN
MATTHEW HOPKINS
SASKIA LEEK
ROB MCHAFFIE
TOBY POLA
TIM PRICE
MARK RODDA
GEMMA SMITH
MASATO TAKASAKA
JAKE WALKER
AMBER WALLIS
Territorial Pissings brought together fourteen Australian artists to explore the notion of mark making through the glib inferences of the Nirvana song of the same name. Surveying territorial pissing as a methodology, and how the encrustation and infestation of things relate to ownership of space, the exhibition aimed to acknowledge both the intense cynicism underpinning this notion, as well as the complex motivations behind mark making more universally.
Michelle Hanlin’s work explores the iconography of heraldry and grotesque decorative forms, incorporating nature with historical visual traditions; Sean Bailey explores a DIY aesthetic in his work through the undercurrents that flow beneath dominant culture; whilst Tom Polo’s practice addresses notions of success and failure through contemporary society’s inherent desire to win. Working across painting and installation, Tom creates playful conceptual works that reference the mundane and the spectacular.
Through their individual practises the artists in Territorial Pissings made their mark on the new Utopian Slumps premises through a celebration of its re-opening.
