2007: This Little Piggy Went to Market, Anna Pappas Gallery (previously Über Gallery), Melbourne, Australia
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This body of work was inspired by a visit to the old market in Cadiz, Spain, which is dominated with chipped old tiles, hanging aprons and catholic icons. It is not a vegetarian outcry or Hermann Nitsch/Damien Hirst shock tactic, it is just an investigation into the curious comfort level we have with the notion of butchery, slaughter and the market place.
The iconic stripes of the butchers’ aprons are instantly recognisable and demand a response. The tiles, hooks and aprons imply a history of violence, yet the market scene is presented in a somewhat removed and isolated light. Tiles continue to linger in my work, perhaps with a little more macabre character. The destructive and distinctive nature of the remnants left by removed tiles has also become an important image for me.
My investigation into our relationship with symbols is something of an obsession. It fascinates me that a series of blue and white lines can stimulate so many thoughts and reactions. It is interesting to note that surgeons previously wore butcher aprons, the introduction of the surgeon greens are a relatively new notion. The stripes of the butcher also tell an interesting tale as to his progression in the trade:
Years ago the Butchers Guild, which began somewhere around the tenth century, had a blue and silver crest. These colours were reproduced in the butchers’ aprons with the difference that the rather strong blue, known as butchers’ blue, was darkened to navy because this colour did not show up the stains so clearly. If he wore a broad stripe, he was a master butcher. If the broad stripe stood alone, he had come up the hard way, learning his trade as he worked at it. But if the broad stripe was topped by a narrow stripe, he was a master butcher who had been apprenticed to his trade.
An apprentice wore an apron with a narrow stripe until he became a master, and if he then undertook to train apprentices himself, he was entitled to wear an apron sporting three stripes – a broad one signifying his mastership, sandwiched between two narrow ones signifying his own apprenticeship and the fact that he was now teaching apprentices. (Provided by The Australian Meat Industry Council)
I continue to work in a variety of mediums, many foreign to the traditional palette. I introduce binders, mediums and artefacts (such as card, dust, string and splashes of espresso coffee) to a base of acrylic. Much of the process is tied to the texture and nature of the subject matter and its scratches, stains and tears. The method demands a great deal of time as I fight for control through a marriage of traditional and somewhat violent techniques.
Matthew Bax, artist statement, 2007
