Brutal Beauty at Studio One Noosa
Michael Brennan previews a mysterious and memorable exhibition that challenges reality amongst the ruins.
Ruins can be captivating things. Potent with romance and nostalgia, they’re the stuff of poetry and painting, where our impermanence and vulnerability are reflected back to us through images of robust structures overcome by the slow but ceaseless marching of time. Vines wrap around ornate columns. Trees topple walls of carefully carved stone. There’s beauty and elegance in both the crumbling architecture and the natural world that reclaims it. But can these qualities still exist when the remnant fancy buildings and the lush green vegetation are nowhere to be seen – when there’s no distant horizon as a backdrop to wistfully gaze out upon while we ponder how small we are in the scheme of things?
Studio One Noosa has recognised the digital art renders of the Banksey-esque ‘The Faceless Artist’ and brought them to life with the renewed cultural interest and nostalgia-fuelled hype surrounding the Oscar-winning sensation The Brutalist. Prompting a resurgence in this once-coveted aesthetic both in architecture and art, the release of the film and the Ruins Collection by The Faceless Artist seemed a perfect pairing. The collection of one-off, new media digital artist proofs, stamped and certified by The Faceless Artist himself are on exhibition at Studio One Noosa Gallery from 1 April.
This collection of graphically arresting geometric compositions confronts us with dizzying details of brutalist architecture. There’s no visual respite – no backdrop for us to relax our focus on. The only ocular escapes from the onslaught of concrete are the intermittent voids that disappear into depths unknown. It seems these structures probably once served a purpose. Stairs ascend between levels, while apertures hint at rooms within. But then some of the stairs go nowhere in an Escher-esque anomaly, while others seem to carve out an otherwise inaccessible space – the occasional pile of rubble the only hint that there was once something else that we’re no longer a party to.
Still, unidentified figures wander and clamber amongst the massive cast concrete blocks and slabs. It’s not entirely accurate to say that nature has been eliminated from these images – you just have to look a little closer. Its reclaiming presence is in the stains of rust and grime that wash down surfaces that were once perfect and new. There’s an unconventional abstract beauty in these marks, just as the harsh geometry of the built forms might be thought of as a summary description of the churches and castles of Romantic era ruins. In both scenarios, the individual is dwarfed by the inevitable repossession of the built environment by the natural.
And there’s also an echo of this in the artist’s identity in this exhibition. ‘The Faceless Artist’ is all we’re given to accompany the images – this anonymity parallelling the mysterious people peppered throughout the works. They say the artist will make an appearance at the exhibition opening, which will be a masquerade affair. But whether we’ll be any wiser as to the mystery of the artist’s identity and the strange and dystopian world the artworks represents, remains to be seen.
DON’T MISS
Ruins collection by The Faceless Artist
Public Exhibition: 1-19 April 2025
Masquerade Opening: 4 April, 5pm. Dress Code: Be Masked
Slivers Fractured Artwork by 8 mystery artists
Scan the room and discover the interplay of ’Slivers’ through the distinct and unique composition and innocent lines of the humble barcode.
Public Exhibition: 20 May-21 June
Exhibition Opening: 23 May, 5pm.
Studio One Noosa Gallery
64 Gateway Drive, Noosaville.
Register via www.studioonenoosa.com
