Art Wall: Jason Phu
26 November 2022 - 6 August 2023
The rivers don’t consume the rain, they hold the water for us, like a mother with an LCM bar in her purse (snap, crackle, pop). We drink the rain through the vegetables (corn on the roof), through the fruit, through the grass the animals eat, through our skin when we bathe, but all these things leave us (poop). Other things come and go as well, people, the bonds they carry with each other, the buildings, the cities, “nothing lasts forever”. The only things that are left are the memories that no one can see or touch or feel. Don’t save the good soap hotel soap for a rainy day, because another one might not come (joke).
- Jason Phu
Some of the things that have come and gone with the waters is a site responsive wall painting by Jason Phu. This work responds to the idea that the waterways and river systems of the Goulburn Valley are the bearers and containers of the stories of generations of people who live here. His playful painting style incorporates a rich array of references from personal narratives, historical events, poetry, humour, and everyday vernacular.
Phu is a multidisciplinary artist who works across painting, drawing, installation, performance, and film. His diverse practice is driven by an interest in ideas of identity, family, and culture, informed by his experience growing up in Australia as the child of first-generation Chinese Vietnamese immigrants.
Image: Jason Phu I saw you yesterday, why would I need to see you again today? 2019 (detail)
Golden acrylics on linen, 90 x 120 cm. Image courtesy Station Gallery.
Image: Jason Phu Some of the things that have come and gone with the waters, 2022 (detail). Photo by Serana Hunt-Hughes.
About the Artist
Jason Phu (b. 1989 Sydney) is a practising artist working across a wide range of media and based in Sydney, New South Wales. He studied at the University of New South Wales, College of Fine Arts, Sydney; and at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Canada. Phu won the prestigious Sir John Sulman Prize in 2015, and has been a finalist in the Archibald, Sulman and Ramsay Art Prizes. Recent exhibitions include Like A Wheel That Turns: 2022 Macfarlane Commissions, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2022); The Way We Eat The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2021); Parade for the Moon, RISING Festival, Melbourne (2021); Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2018). He is represented by STATION Gallery, Melbourne; and Chalk Horse Gallery, Sydney.
Curator: Jessica O'Farrell, Exhibitions Curator
Location: Furphy Family Art Wall, Level 4
Free
