'Surburban' by Ian Strange

This afternoon I visited the Ian Potter Gallery to see 'Suburban' by Ian Strange. The exhibition was a culmination of 2 years work by the Australian born, New York based artist. The two year project that Strange had accomplished was of huge physical proportions - even Gordan Matta-Clark would have been impressed. The artist had somehow acquired 9 suburban post war style homes in various East coast American cities, painted on them or painted them monochromatic, and then with a team of cinematographers and photographers, captured the installations with high definition photos and videos. I found this feat all a bit overwhelming and it somewhat distracted me from the concept that the Artist was presenting. There were 9 large scale photographs, a multichannel surround-sound video installation, and some artefacts from the installations. The video installation was beautiful and eerie- the music haunting and the cinematography was crazily crisp. The photos were also perfectly produced - the lighting was exquisite and made the houses look like lovely colourful objects instead of depressing Suburban homes. Strange's personal discomfort and anger towards the post war Australian and American 'dream home' was clearly evident with the images of a burning house and the house with a big red cross painted on it. Despite being an immaculate presentation of social commentary I found it difficult to connect with the themes on offer as the houses were typically American in American landscapes. I also felt torn between Strange's negative representation of a home when the houses themselves, as a building, were not offensive to me. Perhaps it was the tension between nostalgia towards a family home, versus a repulsion of generic domestic architype, that Strange wanted me to feel.

The exhibition is on until 15th September 2013.

Image from www.ngv.vic.gov.au