exhibition (in person)
JARRAD MARTYN | Relics
Jarrad Martyn's practice involves studio based oil paintings and exterior acrylic wall murals which examine humanity’s relationship with the natural environment and how different historical events are framed.
This exhibition explores the evolution of collective memory and the function of public monuments in modern society. This work underscores the importance of questioning the status of early colonisers and forgotten diplomats in a process that is often linked with social justice movements.
Relics presents a series of large-scale oil paintings that depict ambiguous museum interiors and indistinct landscape spaces, where motifs from different contexts and time periods appear in the same space. COVID Hazmat-suit wearing figures are ‘sanitising’ history, and are set against both ancient and modern monuments removed from their usual contexts.
Martyn employs the principles of bricolage - something constructed from a diverse range of things - to explore the symbolic function of certain imagery and how this might affect our understanding of historical events.