Wild Clive (2015)
Lauren Edmonds
35 x 23.5 x 21cm, mixed media automaton
An investigation into the state of the news media industry and a look at the current Australian political climate has led to the creation of these automaton objects. The premise behind these works is that the lies propagated, the accusations thrown, the showmanship and the chest beatings performed by politicians currently in Australia are only able to gain excessive attention and out of control publicity through the collaboration of two forces; the news outlets and corporations and the masses that consume their products. These works aim to emphasis the ridiculousness of this process and puts into question the authenticity of the power of these political leaders, their credibility and intentions.
The chattering onslaught of almost-daily political polling has become a droll background to our everyday lives. In these works Edmonds had used the already outmoded detritus of the morning newspaper to fabricate the already outmoded detritus of yesterday’s political policy making. Like wind-up toys form a former epoch, these artefacts parody the power and control associated with national politics and reduce them to fragile redundant playthings. If this political critique is unflinchingly direct, the approach is mediated by the quiet absorption of the objects’ careful construction – the viewer is made all-too-aware of the time and consideration the artist has brought to the fabrication of these items. In sharp contradistinction to the soundbytes and info-grabs of what politics has become, the artist’s slow deliberations of thought and care and concern are the residues of an alternative approach to dealing with the concerns at hand.