Marcel Cousins third solo show in Australia titled 'Fishing In A Bath Tub' will be a further testimony to his prolific and unyielding ability to produce an astounding array of artwork that challenges our intellect and pleases the eye.
Cousins is an exciting and confronting talent
In 2002, Marcel completed a degree at Tokyo National
University [scholarship], where he has been residing for some five years. With the National Gallery of Australia having already purchased four pieces from
Cousins', as well as Artbank amongst others, this is an exhibition not to be missed. Marcel’s work reflects the jumble of the real, unreal, traditional and contemporary associations in any modern society. Thematically his works are characterised by an accumulated diversity of trans-cultural images and sophisticated sense of colour and visual composition. Conceptually he is motivated by the potential presented by reproductions and multiples and by the maze of associations offered up by contemporary urban life
"The focus of my most recent work centres around the theme “Constructing Culture Constructing
Reality?" Saussure’s idea of semiology is based on the idea that:
"the meaning of any action or object may seem natural, but is always founded on shared conventions and a
system."
Language written or visual is one way in which we as human beings attempt to codify and make sense of the complex world around us. This system is designed not only to ease us into understanding but also serves as a way of showing us what to know and how to know it. But while language helps us to clarify the world we live in, it also destabilises the very principles that it sets out to carve in stone. Language by nature with its endless creative capacity can’t help but generate unexpected meanings. So meaning is therefore a transient phenomenon that changes or keeps changing its meanings, rather than something that is fixed that holds over time for a series of different audiences. Through my experience as a young western artist it has become clear that visual interpretations can differ between people of different cultural backgrounds, because of different assumptions about what, why and how visual language is to be used.
As a way of investigating what I have just outlined I have chosen to work with the imagery of world currency. What’s on money says a lot about the country it comes from. While currency may serve as a means of facilitating financial transactions it also provides a way for countries to project their self-image through their money. What countries decide to put on their bill and who they celebrate reveal what’s important to them and how they wish to be seen by the rest of the world. Thought a process of appropriation and adaptation I take notes blowing them up into images thousands of times their original size, the images are outpoured through the use of a bubble jet printer onto canvas. Other images and element are added using stencils. The resultant images no longer refer to a single reality, but have instead become
"constructed" realities in their own right." [Marcel Cousins, Artist]
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