2009: My Life is an Open Book, FOST Gallery, Singapore
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When visiting someone’s home for the first time, guests will often drift over to the bookcase (or sneak a peek at the bedside table) to scope out what the homeowner is reading. Books reveal intimate insights about a person; they are the calling cards of our interests, experiences, and sometimes even our problems.
For many people, including Australian artist Matthew Bax, reading a book offers “solace, relaxation and escapism”. The seductive power arising from the act of reading is timeless, as is the ‘book’ itself – a potent symbol of knowledge and education, an icon that has changed little through the ages and one that remains popular in (and adaptable to) this electronic and virtual era.
For My Life is an Open Book, Bax’s first solo exhibition in Singapore, the artist based his latest series of semi-abstract mixed media paintings on the motif of stacked books. Bax’s three-dimensional paintings are representative of scenes from his personal and professional surroundings: “My home, studio and office are dominated by totems of stacked bookmarked books, as I struggle to balance the many demands on my schedule and attention span.”
The ‘stacking’ format in his paintings also echoes the many hats Bax is forced to don daily in his capacity as artist, hospitality business co-owner and head bartender. Although accomplished at juggling many demands at once, an ever-mounting pressure inescapably accumulates and spills over whenever the artist spreads himself too thinly.
Layers of paint (some sculptural, others ethereal drippings) evoke piles of books waiting to be read, or bookmarked pages left open waiting for the reader to continue. Applied to various-sized natural wood surfaces (a reference to the wood pulp paper most books are printed on), glimpses of the striped wood grain complement the variegated paint surface, creating a restful contrast with trompe l’oeil (“trick the eye”) nuances.
Privately, this body of work is partly a record of “self-loathing and laziness” says the artist, but it is also a public statement by Bax about the impossibly distractive nature of modern life. If books are revered as testaments to dedication and learning, then Bax’s collection of wall-mounted ‘book pedestals’ is his personal testament to never giving up, to pursuing dreams and passions, even if it means having to break commitments, battling distractions, and sometimes starting but not finishing.
My Life is an Open Book contains many subtle and obvious layers of meaning, but ultimately the exhibition presents Bax’s calm reflection albeit derived from discomfort and not without a hint of irony.
