Mark Kimber
Stills Gallery 36 Gosbell Street, Paddington NSW 2021 Sydney Australie
Mark Kimber’s new work is fanciful and serious in equal measure. The photographs in All That Glisters present hermetically sealed mini dioramas that speak of our need to place value upon, control, and create memorabilia within our lives.
An astronaut/rock star like figure in a glistening gold jacket stands in the theatrical posture of a seasoned performer mid song. He happens to be a small figurine standing on a red carpet enclosed in a curved oblong glass jar, his innate sense of heroic freedom at odds with his captivity. There is the familiarity of an awards night, the Oscars perhaps, in this elegant object.
Vanitas refers to a type of still life consisting of a collection of objects that symbolise death, the brevity of human life and the transience of earthly pleasures and achievements. Suffused with melancholy, these objects of vanitas carry a regret for lost things – lost hopes, lost ideals, lost aspirations. They also speak of the cultural pressures placed upon the masculine gender.
