em>From Andrew Frost…
Known as the act opt ‘redacting’ official government documents that are released to the public or to journalists will typically have large chunks of text blacked out in an effort to keep certain details, individuals and relationships secret. What some are allowed to know, others must keep wondering. Even in the age of Wikileaks, where the unknown has been unceremoniously dumped into the public domain, blacking out text is a crude but effective way of maintaining power. Tony Garifalakis takes that process and turns it upside down – by blacking out certain bits of visual information, certain details, individuals and their relationships become acutely observable.
Garifalakis’s Mob Rule – recently seen at the Adelaide Biennial in March and getting a Sydney outing at the Art Gallery of NSW – continues the artist’s project of making a mockery of international politics. Using enamels spray paints, Garifalakis blacks out the faces of politicians and royalty leaving only ghostly eyes hovering in the black paint, while long runs of paint dribble down the poster prints. The artist’s works are simple interventions into store bought imagery but remarkably effective in giving these now hidden faces an ominous continuity.
Until August 21
Art Gallery of NSW, The Domain
Pic: Tony Garifalakis, Untitled from Mob rule (Family) 2014. Enamel on C Type prints, 60 cm x 40 cm each. Courtesy of the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery.
