DAVID CRAGG
COLONY
29.07.2022 ~ 14.08.2022
David Cragg's exploration of cultural identity in colonial Australia is realised through a new suite of mixed-media paintings and sculptures in 'Colony'. Cragg's unique visual language draws inspiration from his suburban childhood on Gadigal land (the inner suburbs of Sydney) and his continued disillusionment with 'Australia'.
Burnouts at Summernats, heavily armoured police, feral dogs and barbed wire fences occupy sparse desertscapes, once pristine and sacred, now treated with violent disrespect. Cragg's artwork questions the 'Australian Dream' and ideas of ownership of land, fraught since invasion.
Monochromatic characters of the colony inhabit vibrant landscapes, juxtaposing the one dimensional 'black and white' coloniser mindset with the dynamic, multilayered and multidimensional understanding of Country of First Nations people. This symbiotic relationship with Country sits in stark contrast with the destructive, divisive and oppressive politics and experience of contemporary occupied Australia. Casting light upon the false binaries created by colonialism, impending ecological collapse, the tip-toe to totalitarianism, and a society deeply removed from the natural world, Cragg’s vivid, colourful explorations of Country offer a darker commentary on the 'colony'.
