Exhibition Program – Ham Darroch: Propeller

Image: Ham Darroch, La Danse after Matisse, 2015. Collection MUMA

 

For a slideshow of the exhibition visit our youtube channel here

ANU Alumni and Canberra based artist Ham Darroch opened the Drill Hall’s 2020 exhibition program with a dynamic ensemble of colour, geometry and object-based form. In his paintings and object based sculptures Darroch investigates the visual tradition of hard edge abstraction of the 1960’s and 70’s. His works evoke a strong carry over of the enigmatic conceptualism of Marcel Duchamp and he makes wide ranging references to other works of Australian and non-Australian modern and pre-modern artists.

Darroch’s sculptural work re-conceptualises retired everyday objects by over-painting them with two-dimensional coloured geometric configurations. The wall based sculptures co-inhabit a place of remembered functionality and abstract pictorial representation. In the sixth iteration of his recent site-specific, ephemeral wall paintings Darroch uses Uccello’s historic triptych The Battle of San Romano as a compositional scaffold, painting directly onto the western wall of the gallery. Inhabiting the field of the painting his rhythmic geometries create a narrative of tensions between colour, edges and negative space.

Ham Darroch: Propeller is curated by Tony Oates.

5 week timelapse: Ham Darroch painting Counter Attack (2020) at the Drill Hall Gallery.

 

---

Other related events:

On Friday 14 February at 12 noon join the artist in conversation with Katie Dyer, senior curator, contemporary, at Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Drill Hall Director Terence Maloon and exhibition curator Tony Oates.