Contemporary Leftovers
I cannot quite make my mind up whether Rehgan De Mather would have been a spinner or quick bowler if he were a cricketer. It maters little really in terms of the analogy because there is a remarkable similarity in the development of this young artist and that of our best cricketers.
Rehgan De Mather was blessed with acres of raw talent from the first moment that he set foot on the pitch. This saw him rocket through district and regional teams in record time, on up to secure State selection and even further up to be lurking at a test selection berth.
It’s a very familiar story with our sportspeople, talent, energy and the quirks of their own natural personality bring them awesome success but the higher up the game they go and the more the opposition comes to know their game the more they are tested.
As we know many falter at this point but there are a few who find the inner strength and dedication to add a whole range of new skills to their game: they then start to move into the class of player that has the resilience to last for many seasons.
And whilst many people may cringe at the thought of there being such an obvious parallel between cricketers and art any dispassionate observation of the progress of young artists and cricketers will surely have to see it as so.
In cricket the necessary new skills are increased guile, rhythm, change of pace, understanding of the game, patience and an ability to exploit the nuances of all the conditions. In art it’s very much the same.
This exhibition by Rehgan De Mather represents a most instructive example of how an artist may move from the raw talent stage to more comprehensive one of resilience, complexity and sophistication without loosing that original energy on the way.
Many artists take the easy option when approaching an exhibition such as this. Keep it safe, limit your subject, control your palette and use the old formulaic one-idea-one-exhibition rule. Not for de Mather the low risk option of ten or twelve identically sized works all based on exactly the same image with a few minor variations. It often looks fantastic in a big space, it has the huge advantage of satisfying our rather sad need to get our information in simple neat TV style 30 second grabs but it has not done much for art.
De Mather has grown up in this short attention span period, all the information in an instant, get the message in one hit and its gone.
There is none of that in De Mather’s work as it demands that you approach it in quite a different way. Each picture is a thing in its own right as all the components in it, images, grabs of text, backgrounds and individual marks all take their turn in the limelight. One moment an image appears more important than something near it, the next it is pushed to one side because we’ve been seduced into looking at some intense tiny fragment near it.
It is what these pictures cause us to do that make them so thoroughly interesting.
Once we dare to start looking at this exhibition, there is the danger that we could soon loose track of time. The pictures rarely stay within the boundaries of the canvas that they are painted on because they, or more particularly components in them, trigger memories that have us travelling in our minds to other art works by other artists, real places, different times or something else in the exhibition.
Instead of the quick television grab De Mather presents us with the entire Saturday paper spread out across the lounge-room floor, we scan this mass of information searching for articles that interest us enough to read. There is no particular order to the way that we do this and indeed there is no guarantee that we will finish each article before we move to something else.
From my own perspective I value being given these kinds of choices by an artist as it seems to make me feel included, respected and a genuine participator in the work.
As I look at the way Rehgan De Mather has used text, or more correctly slogans, in the various works I cannot help being reminded of my original cricket analogy and find myself smiling as he bowls up another ball complete with sledging. Sometimes whispered directly in your ear, others shouted but incomplete as if he had to stifle it before the umpire could penalise him, some muttered under his breath like personal commands or little private pep talks and some more are strident pronouncements.
Be they heard directly in your head or sensed De Mather’s words do not really add meaning to the paintings, instead they hand the viewer the key to how the pictures work.
As you wander around in the usual Art Gallery silence these noisy companions demand you take notice of them; not for them a bland visual interpretation but a whole mind and body experience.
Clive Murray-White.
Choose Your Words Carefully, Acrylic and collage on canvas, 60cm x 120cm, 2005.
Chitter Chatter, Acrylic, oil stick and letra-set on canvas, 90cm x 90cm, 2005.
A Study in Placement (1), Acrylic, oil stick and collage on canvas, 90cm x 120cm, 2005.
A Study in Placement (2), Acrylic, spray enamel, oil stick and collage on canvas, 90cm x 90cm, 2005.
Everything in it's Right Place, Acrylic, spray enamel, oil stick and collage on canvas, 120cm x 120cm, 2005.
Street Spirit, Acrylic, spray enamel, oil stick, charcoal and collage on canvas, 150cm x 150cm, 2005.
A Mine Field for a Mind Filled, Acrylic, spray enamel, oil stick, charcoal and collage on canvas, 150cm x 150cm, 2005.
Self Portrait as a Useless Pseudonym, Acrylic, spray enamel and charcoal on canvas, 150cm x 150cm, 2005.
Ranting and Raving, Acrylic, spray enamel and collage on canvas, 150cm x 150cm, 2005.
Art Games, Acrylic, spray enamel, oil stick and collage on canvas, 150cm x 150cm, 2005.
Mega Art, Acrylic, spray enamel, oil stick, charcoal and collage on canvas, 150cm x 150cm, 2005.
Contemporary Leftovers, Acrylic, spray enamel, oil stick, charcoal and collage on canvas, 150cm x 750cm, 2005.
Contemporary Leftovers (1), Acrylic, spray enamel, oil stick, charcoal and collage on canvas, 150cm x 150cm, 2005.
Contemporary Leftovers (2), Acrylic, spray enamel, oil stick, charcoal and collage on canvas, 150cm x 150cm, 2005.
Contemporary Leftovers (3), Acrylic, spray enamel, oil stick, charcoal and collage on canvas, 150cm x 150cm, 2005.
Contemporary Leftovers (4), Acrylic, spray enamel, oil stick, charcoal and collage on canvas, 150cm x 150cm, 2005.
Contemporary Leftovers (5), Acrylic, spray enamel, oil stick, charcoal and collage on canvas, 150cm x 150cm, 2005.
