Feature Article
THE ART OF DISPLACEMENT
- the art of chronically displaced artist Stephen Eastaugh on show at Urban Dingo Gallery, Fremantle from 8 May to 8 June.
For artist Stephen Eastaugh being displaced is a normal state of mind. Since the 1980s he has visited 80 countries, every continent, set up more than 200 studios around the world, and - almost illegal in today's modern world - he has no home. "Not having a home makes me constantly in transit. I now confuse domestic with exotic and think airports are cosy. It seems I have a positive form of travel sickness," says Stephen.
Stephen Eastaugh in Antarctica.
"This unstill-life has required me to discard most possessions to remain nomadic. Foreign is now very familiar to me. I wallow in foreign anonymity, moving from studios in Phnom Penh to Paris to pack ice. Sometimes this wanderlust feels like a bizarre non-stop stopover but most of the time I am pleasantly lost and at ease with my wayward way of melding art, travel and life."
Stephen is currently at Mawson Station in Antarctica, where he is artist in residence for nine months. Just as he constantly travels, so does his art. Beginning 8 May to 8 June his work travels to Urban Dingo Gallery in Fremantle from Bangkok, where it too will then travel on to Argentina.
'Displaced Mat,' by Stephen Eastaugh constructed from bits of objects, ideas, shapes and memories from many lands.
The title of the exhibition Displaced Mats, has a special resonance for the artist. The exhibition consists of work the size of the humble placemat. "Placemats designate where one sits at the table. They locate you or position you within the geography of the dinner table. Conceptually the name 'placemat' is of interest to me as the idea of place can be expanded to mean location, home, land or geography. I need a placemat to help position me or to remind me where on earth I am. I have occasionally woken up at some longtitude and lattitude and it has taken me some minutes to discover or recall what country I was in," says Stephen, and asks, "could this be some form of wanderlust sickness or terminal jetlag?"
Stephen says many places he stayed for short 'pit stops' while others he spent some months attempting to sink roots. "Roots did not form, or I was only able to produce aerial roots, so a tumbleweed kind of life became my mode of living. Travel has become a sort of home. Home as a concept has become very fluid. Place has therefore also become fuzzy."
Stephen Eastaugh's current studio in Antarctica.
He says living in Antarctica is strangely comfortable as it has never been anyone's home. "Antarctic station life is a little like living in an airport, which may explain why I like the environment. Some days I look out my window into a total void constructed of a whiteout and a wild blizzard. My art supplies have been located and a science building charmingly called 'Wombat' I have seized as my studio. I now adapt this space by filling it with art gear. I will paint, sew, draw, write, photograph, film and doddle my way through a mixture of experiences over the coming months, some dark and some light. I am here as the first Australian Antarctic Arts Fellow to be in residence during winter."
Stephen is using his nine-month residency as a means of practising staying put, having recently married Argentinian photographer and winemaker Carolina Furque who lives near the Andes, and thus far has resisted the idea of calling her house his home.
He says the works in Displaced Mats are built from fractured and fuzzy landscapes, images of places seen in passing as he moves from place to place.
'Displaced Mat,' by Stephen Eastaugh.
Born in Melbourne in 1960, Stephen Eastaugh completed a BA in Fine Arts at Melbourne's Victorian College of the Arts before being awarded a Certificate of Achievement at the University of Oslo. He also completed a Diploma of Education at the University of Tasmania. Stephen has held more than thirty-three solo exhibitions since 1987 with venues in Melbourne, Sydney, Broome, Amsterdam, Sofia, Paris, Hong Kong, Manila, Phnom Penh, Bangkok and Antarctica.
He has been involved in more than eighty group exhibitions in his career so far including the Australian National Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum of Modern Art, Heide, and other regional and commercial galleries in Australia and overseas, many of which hold collections of his work.
Urban Dingo Gallery is located at 28a Queen Street, Fremantle. For further information contact the Director Jennefer Hollman on 9336 6972.