Nicholas Bastin's The Sleepless Hero is an exhibition that constitutes a collection of jewellery objects that appear to be the remnant accessories of new super-real characters, invented from associations from both popular culture and traditional mythology. The work touches on issues relating to the portrayal of the hero and the two-dimensional dualism of good and evil, to explore possible new contexts of the archetypal character in a contemporary urban mythology.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
The depictions of objects, particularly accessories associated with the body, within narratives such as science fiction/fantasy media and Japanese anime, can become important signifiers of broader aspects of the narrative. Character can be defined by an individual's personal accoutrement, such as, weaponry, costume and magical apparatus, and these can become iconic in the realm of popular culture.
In The Sleepless Hero the jewellery objects are installed independent of the body and the positioning of the work has a pretext that is both sculptural and museological. The original characters have long gone – dead, and all that remains are the remnants that 'recount' these characters, and thus the associated narratives. The objects appear to float, as if frozen in a moment of time that captures both the manner of wearability and the moment of action at which the frame has been halted. Through the empty spaces surrounding the work, and the stance and drama depicted through the attributes of the objects, the imagined wearers/characters are implied.
As characters within mythologies are idealised, the jewellery objects are also hyper-real. Dynamism of scale, form and colour are explored through materials, such as plastic, which lend themselves to the interpretation of the visual and intangible qualities of anime. In the present these objects are viewed as if artefacts from the past but not from a real history, rather from one that is alternate. As if plucked from a wormhole from an alternate future/past, the objects appear as if they have been transmogrified into the real from the animated image. In The Sleepless Hero the hero character is absent, the assumed body extinguished through a faux passing of time, yet is reborn through the presence of the object alone in situ of a museological viewing paradigm.
Nicholas Bastin, Februray 2012
LAUNCH Thursday 8 March 2012, 6–8pm
SHOWING 9 March – 21 April, 2012
To be opened by Professor Robert Baines, Coordinator of Postgraduate Gold and Silversmithing, School of Art, RMIT University. This exhibition will also feature a special appearance (read: cake!) by the Hotham Street Ladies.
Photography: Lily Feng
