DRONE: Ghosts and Shadows, the curated survey exhibition of the last decade of my creative practice and research is entering its last week. The exhibition is at the University of Southern Queensland Art Gallery, Toowoomba, Australia. The exhibition was curated by the gallery director, Brodie Taylor, JP (Qual), BCRA (hons), FRSA, FSA Scot, MIML, GAICD. The exhibition represents a milestone in my creative and academic journey.
The show finishes on Friday April 4. Gallery hours Tuesday - Friday 10am - 3pm.
The exhibition has, according to the Director, attracted hundreds of visitors. I am thrilled! The opening event was also a vibrant occasion, which ended with a panel discussion, 'War in the Age of Hyperconnectivity: What does it look like?'. I was very pleased to discuss military and civilian impacts of signal-enabled hyperconnectivity and the importance of art as a method to examine these impacts, with colleague, Dr. Samid Suliman (Griffith University) and, industry representative, Dave Devine OAM, from Alkath Group-Mellori Solutions.
Here are some photos of the exhibition, opening, and panel discussion. My artist's statement is at the end of the post. And, the exhibition essay 'Against the Sensoration of the World', by Associate Professor Michael Richardson (Uni of New South Wales), is also at the end.
Right: Ghost Cloud, 2024.
The event had to be postponed to mid-way through the exhibition due to Cyclone Alfred causing havoc and flooding across a vast area of Queensland.
Artist Statement
DRONE: Ghosts
and Shadows
I invite
viewers of my paintings to ‘fly’ in their imaginations, above, below, inside,
and around the mechanisms of war and spawning new modes of signal-facilitated
warfare - information, hybrid, cyber, space, and electromagnetic. If you ‘fly’
beyond orbiting satellites, the earth-to-satellite environment can be
cosmically ‘viewed’, as an extension
of landscape. It is an invisible hyper-landscape of signals carrying data and
instructions, transmitted at beyond-human speed – lightspeed.
Drone: Ghost
and Shadows
represents a survey of my work created over the last ten years. While the
paintings address militarised technology, the militarise-ability of civilian
technology, and increasing military interest in the electromagnetic spectrum
(EMS), each painting has multiple other influences. As a pre-teen I loved
biographies of famous scientists - Marconi, Faraday, Curie, Pasteur. I also
loved art. During my B.A, while majoring in art history, I undertook a
year-long history subject, The History of Science. This subject has
profoundly influenced my life’s work, helping to integrate my youthful
fascinations, and inspiring me to ‘see’ connections between art, science,
culture, technology, society, war, politics, and more. This throng of
inspirations has shaped my creative practice, and my interdisciplinary
post-graduate studies.
I grew up on a farm between Dalby and Jimbour, Queensland. As I gazed across the vast landscape of endless skies and flat horizons, I ‘flew’, in imagination, above our farm. I knew what it looked like - buildings, crops, ploughed paddocks, roads - from above. Childhood imaginational flight is the source of my creative and critical method - ‘imaginational metaveillance.’ I combine it with painting practice to interrogate the visible, and to expose the normally invisible, elements of our hyperconnected world – from civilian and military airborne drones to the lightspeed electromagnetic frequencies our civilian and military technologies rely upon for connectivity and interconnectivity. While imaginational metaveillance and painting are not reliant on digital/cyber devices, or signal connectivity, this does not preclude them as methods to critique these technologies. Rather, they provide a distance from them that affords different perspectives. DRONE: Ghosts and Shadows is your chance to ‘see’ what this distance reveals.
In other news, I invite you to watch/listen to the first half hour of my presentation 'Painting the Politics of Drones' at the March Visual Politics Research Program seminar, University of Queensland. The second half was Q&A.
