Jared Malton
Reluctant Obsolescence
30 November - 11 December 2022
G3
Opening Night
Friday 2 December | 6pm – 8pm
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These works do not particularly have too much to do with motorcycles, although their size haphazardly dictates the perfect dimensions for an old advertising billboard.
Universally, advertising and branding can subconsciously be central to how we perceive nostalgia. It is this nostalgia that stimulates Jared to engage with and converse with the viewer. The subject of nostalgia in conversation can become a vast topic, one which he narrows down through the language and aesthetics of vintage/ retro motorcycle culture. Within this body of work Malton finds himself appropriating vintage branding and the advertising presence of the 70’s and 80’s purely as a gesture of composition in form, only to eventually disarm their original
meaning and dragging them from their native context. This act of appropriation fronts as a subtle nod to the influences of 1960’s LA modern artists (namely Billy Al Bengston, Ed Ruscha and Craig Kauffman) who now echo through current contemporary art today. It is these influences that Malton responds to through his works by taking simplicity in minimalism and ‘fucking it up with... life’. Re-configuring the retro branding spatial strategies to almost disarm them, as they now stand lost in translation in current society. His illustrated ambiguity of the past is then distilled through a contemporary approach, in which he displays a sense of total defamiliarization to the viewer, only to arrive back to its original intent, but in an unfamiliar way.
The illusion of this period of time creates a sense of nostalgic magnetism, and it is with this that Malton romanticises an era of time only just out of the clutches of his own, having only heard, read and seen but never experienced. Championing the branding of destructive oil and cigarette companies, which were often held in high extol throughout motorsport, is now polarising in today's society. Yet only three decades ago, this marketing behavior was seen as the norm. Subsequently, Malton presents various sculptures which stand as reluctant ‘fossilised’ relics of what once was, while his paintings mirror an obsolete and bygone era only to attempt to resurface themselves in a contemporary context.
Contact
Phone : (03) 9482 3550
mail@redgallery.com.au
Address
157 St Georges Rd
Fitzroy North, Victoria, 3068
Map
How to get here
Tram: route 11
Stop 21 just north of Edinburgh Gardens
Melway ref: 30B12
Parking in nearby streets
Bus: 504 (Reid Street)
