Light globe cages

This post has more of my earliest exhibited works. These works were in a show called Crack at PCL Exhibitionists in 1998, my first group show. The exhibition also featured photographs by Daniel Linet, paintings by Peta Morris, Jo Tracy and David Sayer, sculpture by Lisa Jones, and prints by Kristi Furner.


I showed one work in an earlier post (see here). The wire "cages" are my idea of being caged as an individual by society. Many of the works also had anti-corporate themes, but I no longer think that it's just corporations that distort and damage people, but society as a whole. Another series (see this post) of wire cages enclosed hair which acted as a metaphor for groups of people, but in these works the light globes represent individuals, who are sometimes trapped alone, but sometimes trapped en masse. The first work is at least a little hopeful, or perhaps it's more a warning - Life - Be In It or you may end up like this! (I should mention that these photos were taken before I employed a professional photographer to record my work, so the quality is not great).


This work is Murray Gleeson, Where Are You? These are the other 6 High Court judges...

I think this work is listed in the room sheet for the show as George St., Sydney, but I thought it would have been called George St., 5pm with a nod to John Brack's Collins St., 5pm. Hmmm... Actually George St., Sydney is the title of someone else's work... Yes, George St, 5PM is the title of my work (but does it actually refer to this image!? It could be The Physical Impossibility of Independent Thought in the Mind of Someone Working for a Transnational Corporation (à la Damien Hirst)). Hmmm... No, that's actually a cicada work that I'll show in another post. This is George St., 5PM.

I think this was A Place at the Table, a reference to Bruce Bawer's book about gays in America. I think that's what the gap is for on the top layer, sort of a poisoned chalice idea - sure you get a place at the table, but you have to eat shit.

Another view of the same work:


I'm 99% certain that this one is International Style, with an obvious architectural reference.


I think this one is ...And the Pursuit of Happiness, with one of the globes having escaped the deadening life of servitude of the others.


I also made a few works with flueurescent light tubes. This was called The Dan Flavin I'd Like to See. The light tubes also ended up, in greater number, in my Hate and Envy and Crime and Darkness and Pain exhibition (see this post for a photo).


This work used the smaller light tubes, but I have absolutely no idea of the title. The work has since been destroyed, so I guess it doesn't matter too much.


Well, this could be The Physical Impossibility of Independent Thought in the Mind of Someone Working for a Transnational Corporation, too. These ones are very small globes, with burnt papier-mâché. Or it could be In Darkness My Heart Was Won. Or The Bachelors Stripped Bare... The titles were generally quite dark, and often referring to other art works (some might say derivative...). No, this is actually Visions of the Apocalypse, and was in the Touch show in 1999. I found photos!


This is an installation snapshot of a work called Bridget. It was the name of a woman I'd heard about who had spina bifida, or MS or some such disease. I can't remember the details, but it was somehow heartwarming and life affirming, and an antidote to the death by corporation theme that the rest of the globe works had. In this one the globe "climbs" out of its cage and goes from burnt back to normal, and free.