A STRANGE look at the confrontation of the “messy, irrational” body and how it compares to the “clean and rational” technological landscape is now on display at the Riddoch Art Gallery.
Melbourne artist Ian Haig has explored the notion of the body and the contemporary media world for many years and his exhibition The Institute of Fungus is on show in Mount Gambier for the first time.
“There is a bit of retrospective work in the gallery, the oldest piece I have on display is from all the way back in 2000,” Mr Haig said.
“I have been lucky enough to show a lot of my work overseas and I am happy to now be in Mount Gambier, which seems to be a little cultural hub and I didn’t really realise that before.”
From works that look at re-animated bodies to internal organs and the mutating conditions of the body, the exhibition is confronting and eye-opening.
“Technology is rational, it’s clean, it’s ordered, it’s controlled, it’s structured, but our bodies are out of control, messy and irrational,” Mr Haig said.
“That’s really the premise of this exhibition and each individual piece looks at different themes attached to that idea.”
Mr Haig said he was trying to “buck the trend” when it comes to people’s perceptions of technology in the art world.
While his attempt to do that overseas has been successful, he wants it to now have a big impact on Australian soil.
“I have found overseas they have a large interest in this work whereas the art world in Australia is somewhat more conservative and a bit less likely to be interested in this type of field,” he said.
“Particularly with anything to do with technology in it, there seems to be this kind of massive allergy towards technology, which I simply do not understand because it is the world we now live in.”
During his travels, Mr Haig has met many artists along the way, with his main inspiration coming from the world of cinema.
“I have been doing this kind of work for many years now and I guess in some respects a lot of my influences don’t come from the art world,” Mr Haig said.
“They come out of horror film, which I think is a minefield for this stuff.
“My work has a relationship with this history of body horror in cinema, which is then manifested in a contemporary art context.”
With 14 pieces currently on display, Mr Haig is still experimenting and working on the theme to create more work for the future.
“I am developing a new video work at the moment, which is hopefully going to be a feature length film based around some of these idea in the context of a narrative,” Mr Haig said.
“I am always trying to develop new projects.”
