Born in 1973 in Adelaide, South Australia, Sam Leach worked for several years in the Australian Tax Office before then going on to complete a Diploma, Bachelors and finally Masters in Fine Art at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Although he appears to be represented by sullivan+strumpf, a Sydney and Signapore based company, there is very little information about him online. Infact what little there is online formally seems to be steeped in controversey, of one kind or another.
His works gather themselves around several key icons, animals, people in biohazard suits, Dutch landscape style dioramas and geometric abstraction, with emphasis on composition, sometimes dividing larger works up into a series of resin varinshed square canvasses. Leach himself specifically states that he wishes his works to remain in a state of constant enquiry, unsolvable, with in his own words an 'ongoing dialogue' where the viewer is never entirely certain if they grasp the meaning. Going above and beyond ambigious, he pitches himself firmly in the arcane and unexplainable.
His use of 'non-human animals', as he regularly calls them, are a proxy for human figures, to which he suggests "there is this idea that we can relate to any kind of conscious entity, so the animal there is as an agent we can all identify to." He admits however, perhaps conversely to his intention, that he personally attempts and even struggles to represent an animal that is completely devoid of human connotation or emotion, to capture each being on it's own terms, from it's own world view.
The boiler suits are, in his own words, suggestive for those in technical industries, sciences or engineering. They are also metaphors for the barrier we put up between ourselves and the outside world, with just the slightest suggestion that perhaps the outside world may need sealing off from us. However they are also innately paradoxical, as Leach suggests that the prescence of the suits actually demonstrate the opposite; that we can never truly seperate ourselves away from what we are, no matter what technology we imploy to make it seem so. His work is truly full of paradoxes however, as the full body covering of these suits, especially when juxtaposed against the overtly natural, certainly does make the people seem utterly alien and entirely seperate from the green foliage.
His use of 'non-human animals', as he regularly calls them, are a proxy for human figures, to which he suggests "there is this idea that we can relate to any kind of conscious entity, so the animal there is as an agent we can all identify to." He admits however, perhaps conversely to his intention, that he personally attempts and even struggles to represent an animal that is completely devoid of human connotation or emotion, to capture each being on it's own terms, from it's own world view.The boiler suits are, in his own words, suggestive for those in technical industries, sciences or engineering. They are also metaphors for the barrier we put up between ourselves and the outside world, with just the slightest suggestion that perhaps the outside world may need sealing off from us. However they are also innately paradoxical, as Leach suggests that the prescence of the suits actually demonstrate the opposite; that we can never truly seperate ourselves away from what we are, no matter what technology we imploy to make it seem so. His work is truly full of paradoxes however, as the full body covering of these suits, especially when juxtaposed against the overtly natural, certainly does make the people seem utterly alien and entirely seperate from the green foliage.
Contextually, I found an interesting excerpt in an interview with Neha Kale for VAULT Magazine which went some way to explain the source of this inspiration;
"I guess I started off being interested in the way that we relate to the built environment and phenomena of the corporate foyer. This was around the 1990s and early 2000s, when corporate capitalists were totally unstoppable. Around the same time, I came across a fascinating link between corporate foyers and the architecture paintings made in the Netherlands in the 17th century, and the fact that this period corresponded with the rise of corporate capitalism really resonated with me because I could see aesthetic echoes everywhere. It made me ask: ‘What is it about images that were produced during that era that have something to say about how we structure our society now?’ I then introduced references to non-human animals and how we relate to them."
He also uses stills from scientific research footage, as well as using statistical data to plot lines and geometric shapes on his work. This can be seen in "Oxygen Intake Test" one of a series of oil paintings showing birds undergoing laboratory flying tests.I also found his usage of white tigers interesting. Although I couldn't find any formal contextualisation of this online, white tigers, contrary to popular belief, are not actually a subspecies of there own and are infact a rare genetic abnormality. To raise chances of white tigers during their early popularity boom in zoos and animal facilities, breeders would inbreed family members to increase the likelihood of cubs with the unique defect. The same gene which causes the coat to be white also causes the optic nerve to be wired to the wrong side of the brain, thus all phenomelanistic tigers are cross eyed, even if their eyes appear normal. The vast majority of these inbred cubs will be born with normal orange fur, but still carrying the host of genetic defects. In the industry apparently these cubs are called 'throwaway tigers' as not only are they genetically deficient but are also a mixture of Bengal and Siberian tiger and therefore serve no conservational basis, and are either sold on to unregulated and illegal private collectors or killed. They are the perfect poster animal for mankind's tendancy to play god with nature for our own extortions and preferences, without regard for any consequences of the health of the beings involved. In 2008 the American Zoological Associated implemented a full ban on the breeding of white tigers, lions and king cheetah.
Leach is an artist with thorough contextual awareness, as demonstrated by his unnanounced but entirely aware appropriation of Adamn Pynacker's piece, Boatmen Moored on a Lake Shore, titled Proposal For Landscaped Cosmos which went on to win the 2010 Wynne Prize. So I don't doubt that he would be aware of this context surrounding white tigers, especially as they feature repeatedly across his works. I think possibly the white tigers, lions and king cheetah could be interesting icons to implement in my own work, metaphorical for the toxic relationship of mankind's manipulation and
percieved control over nature.As well as these pieces which I have focussed on, due to their relation to my own practice, he also often creates sculptural works to go alongside his paintings, normally either stark juxtapositions of natural rock form against man made material or geometric abstractions pulled from the backgrounds of his paintings.
Although I think there is a strong focus on the interrelationship between mankind and nature throughout Leach's work, within his practice it is employed to reflect back upon the human condition, in some generally undiscenernable and therefore incredibly personal way. His work featuring the biohazard suits however immeditaley begin to take on a more political feel, personally. The clinical way in which these characters invade and interact with their environment makes them feel inertly foreign, mistrustful and destructive, yet I know them to be human. However due to the subjective nature of Sam's work, he intentionally leaves a great deal up to speculation, and I cannot rule out that this strong connotation could be me reading my own personal interpretation. Such as in the earlier example I am sure there would be others who would interpret the fighting cats as a show of strength, dominion and advancement. This ambiguity however is what gives Leach's work a portion of its power, as it is the projections onlookers can make within themselves that sometimes hold the strongest resonance. I also really like his use of the term 'non-human animals' as it firmly reconnects humanity as another species within the animal kingdom in such a matter-of fact way that in interview format it almost sounds like a natural term.
Theriophily and Substance: Sam Leach from Long Walk Films on Vimeo.
No comments:
Post a Comment