Anthony Bennett (Australian artist)

Anthony Bennett is an Australian artist born in Mackay Queensland in 1966. He has lived and worked in Tokyo, Rome and London and has exhibited nationally in Australia and internationally, sometimes controversially, with accusations from family groups in Brisbane in 2003 that his work was pornography. He is a finalist in the Archibald Prize for 2008 and in 2007 featured as one of the 'hot young queensland painters' interviewed on ABC TV's Sunday Arts programme and also won the "renault new generation art award" at Art Sydney 07. He has also been a finalist in the prestigious Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Sculpture by the Sea, The Schubert Ulrick Photographic Awards and the Cromwell's Art Prize. In 2004 he was awarded a Bundanon residency. Graduating from Griffith University Queensland College of Art with a Bachelor of Visual Art and majors in painting and sculpture in 1999.

Described in "Art & Australia" in 2006 as, a "potent anti-corporate poet" by reviewer Vikki Riley, his work uses the language and imagery of the everyday, appropriating pop culture with grabs from advertising, cartoons, music and movie stars and references respectful and otherwise to art history. He refers as much to Kierkegaard and Camus as Kath and Kim. His imagery is smeared and distorted in an extreme form of expressionism that quotes from Willem de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Brett Whiteley, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Cy Twombly. His titles are integral components and often mash words into the perceptive equation to play off the imagery, adding to the semantic game and augmenting the mood of dissent, while also revealing much about his practice. His work is contained in many private collections in Australia, New Zealand, Austria, China, Japan, Italy and England. [http://www.anthonybennett.com Artist's folio site] left|180px|thumb|'I mean thriller was good but let's face it it's no off the wall now is it?' 140cmx140cm mixed media ">

Anthony Bennett 2006

Pop Cannibal

Bennett paints every day and links every section of his life to his art. It has become second nature and is incorporated through the use imagery and text that is absorbed so fully from television and other mass media, and even conversations with friends, that it is as integral to the work as the paint or the canvas. Pop culture becomes the words that he uses to construct his artistic sentences. These make the conversation as relevant or useless as the experience of the viewer of the works will allow. "If the viewer is aware of Freud or Jung then a discussion of the ideas those heavyweight thinkers have provided us is in play. If the viewer is only aware of the last Hollywood version of 'Superman', but not Nietzsche's version then that might be just as relevant to them, but not necessarily the end of the story...." says Bennett

"I don't really like conversations about art," he continues "because I think art is a visual language in and of itself and when you learn that language properly, why talk over the top of it. To do that is like the annoying git at the movies who explains what's happening to the person beside them throughout the whole movie and ultimately ruins the experience for everone else around them."

"Conversations should be reserved for philosophy" he states, "...and perhaps discussing television programmes ....but unfortunately most humans talk simply because they can."

"I think the influences in my work are obvious but prefer the viewer to discover them for themselves ...after all why should everything be spoon-fed to you. The people that appreciate and collect my work are generally well educated, well rounded and like to draw their own conclusions anyway....you either get it or you don't...I am not here to preach and I also think it is a mistake to underestimate your audience"

"Pop Cannibal is the term I use for it. The Tarantino or Simpsons style mix and match of genres in equal parts homage and/or critique. Not always equal parts either, as nothing should be written in stone. It depends on mood, day of the week, the quality of the wine consumed etc."

Tragic Inspiration

The death of Bennett's mother and brother in a car accident when he was still a teenager was naturally the cause of profound changes in his life. Already an introspective individual this caused a shift further in that particular direction. He sought answers to the big questions and an explanation for the pain and he explored the philosophers of the past for some kind of guidance in that area. He contemplated suicide on more than one occasion. "I have many friends that have thought about it..." he said " I think it's a fairly sane and normal reaction to life, given the difficulty and pain often present, go read Camus, ...but I found a point just before you check out when time has slowed, where I realised it could also be used as a very powerful tool to help you to regain control to a certain degree and can then be utilised as a massive force of forward momentum...after all there is no good and evil and god is dead...thank you Friedrich" His attempt to escape the pain was ultimately less final and he began to travel, heading to England for the first time."Someone once said that all travel is a form of running away from something and for me that was absolutely true."

Much of the work produced in that period he destroyed because he felt it was made more as a cathartic experience rather than something to be shown or used to derive income from. "It was raw in the sense of an open wound, and I didn't really want it to be seen...it was just for me..." he said. "The raw application of paint to canvas by hand is still present...and some have also made comment on the sadness that they find in the drips which is of course their interpretation....the word psychopath has been used on more than one occasion particularly in reference to the self portraits....and that amuses me no end...generally the comments made by a person regarding a painting can be said to reveal much more about them than the artist..."

The Vatican Thing

In 1999, while living in Rome, Bennett carried out his first commando card installation. He placed over 120 postcards of nudes that he had produced in Australia, into the postcard racks of the Vatican Gift Shop. Aware of the strict security and the ever present Swiss Guard he pretended to be perusing the stacks and would take out one of the pope postcards for sale, look at it and then when he returned it to the stack, he would palm one of his own cards in behind it. One at a time until all were in place. He reasoned that once the outer cards were purchased by those on pilgrimage, his cards would be revealed in each slot, but not be purchased given the subject matter, and the postcard racks would slowly bloom into a postcard rack sculpture of his work, aided unwittingly by the compliance of the faithful Catholics.

Cho Sagoi Desu Ne

In 2000 Bennett spent time in Tokyo, 2 years in fact, wandering the streets and absorbing the culture. He started photographing the people in the streets and the fashions and styles of youth culture that he saw there. Kogeru and Yamamba fashions in Shibuya and surrounding suburbs are hard to miss. The presence of the U.S. military that persists in that country was a surprise to him. He describes the culture as like looking at western culture, which is to say U.S. culture, in a sideshow mirror. "You see something you recognise but it's been twisted or 'pimped' to incorporate something new and odd. The simplest illustration of this would be the emergency services number which in the US is 911 and in Japan is 119. I realised also how much of the culture we think of as Australian belongs to, or derives from, the United States.We all live in America now...your children are being raised by paris and nicole....we were raised by axyl and madonna...."The photographic exhibition 'tokyo lipstick' was the result, shown in Brisbane in 2002.

uper Thanks for Asking

"super thanks for asking" is the title of an exhibition in 2007 that continues with the use of portraits and in particular "celebrity" that started some years ago, in which Bennett emphasizes the iconic nature of each face, adopting a close up frontal viewpoint centred against a single colour backdrop. Vivid garish hues and flamboyant brushwork act to subvert all previous notions of the subject. Despite the painterly attack each individual remains instantly recognizable and yet an unsettling sense of dislocation may persist - generated it seems from the fluctuating depth and unique figure-ground dynamics. Sardonic commentary scrawled in tiny text prompts closer scrutiny. A notion builds that the works themselves might be some sort of anarchic, aesthetic declaration. Transcending all questions of originality, Bennett has created a cryptic visual vocabulary where the personal and public collide in enormously powerful statements. The highly reflective finish of the work also means the viewer often becomes incorporated into the image they are viewing. Subjects deemed paint-worthy include Andy Warhol, Brett Whiteley, Vincent Van Gogh, Queen Elizabeth II, Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse, Reg Mombassa and Peter Garrett and these are cross referenced with titles from trash mags to keep you informed about the comings and goings of britney, paris,lindsay, tom and katie, brad and ange, ben and jen, brad and jen,brad and gwyneth, ben and brad, ben and tom, jen and gwyneth. Information none of us can do without. [
Bugs Bunny in lipstick and frock' 130 x 130cm mixed media

Anthony Bennett 2007]

References

Crimmings, Emma; Sunday Arts, ABC TV, 4 November 2007

Anderson, Judy; The Gold Coast Bulletin, Art Review, April 2006

Houghton, J.; Art Review, Clay, April 2006

Miliner, K.; Gucci Geisha, The Courier-Mail, 2002

Riley, Vikki; "Art & Australia", Issue 43 No.3, March 2006

See also

* [http://www.schubertcontemporary.com.au/Contemporary/Bennett_Anthony/Bennett02/Bennett_Anthony02.htm more images]

* [http://www.anthonybennett.com biography]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/tv/sundayarts/video/ View ABC TV Sunday Arts Nov. 4 2007 Interview]
* [http://www.thearchibaldprize.com.au/finalists/archibald Archibald Finalists 2008]