Laminate Paintings
ARTIST STATEMENT FOR PARADISE CITY EXHIBITION:
Matthew de Moiser continues his meticulous work with kitchen laminate, this time turning his attention on the suburbs. The result, which he calls 'laminate paintings' are actually assemblages crafted from finely cut coloured laminate.
There is an inherent, generic familiarity in the places depicted - service stations, overpasses, shopping malls and houses - which serve as starting points for his polychromatic visions.
Although these works are representations of real places, they are more paired back this time with a renewed emphasis on colour, shape and form. In this sense, they are impressions of the Australian suburban condition. The key to these works though is the way in which they distill the essence of their subject into fundamental colours and forms. Able to be viewed as either representations of real places or two dimensional abstractions, they draw a clear link to Matthew's earlier sculptural work made from Ikea furniture parts.
In some ways, Paradise City is a reconciliation of sorts between Arkley's fetish for the suburbs and Robin Boyd's contempt for them. The vibrant palette pays homage to Arkley and indeed the suburbs; yet upon closer inspection there's no escaping the fact that these works are not paintings at all but assemblages made from laminate - a plastic veneer used to conceal and protect. The apparent contradiction is not accidental.