eX de Medici: Spies Like Us

Overview

Fans of Sydney-based artist eX de Medici's intricate watercolours will no doubt already have Spies Like Us in their calendar – opening at Sullivan+Strumpf on June 10.

This arresting new body of work focuses on western political power, the rise of surveillance states, and the relationship between life and death. The collection of watercolours combines the artists beautiful ornamentation and seriously virtuosic miniaturist technique with unsettling themes of violence and destruction. Expect images of helmets, guns and military paraphernalia garlanded by flowers, foliage and tiny birds. Works like 'Root and Branch' and 'Persistence of Error' entwine the beautiful with the violent and militaristic, the delicate with the brutal, challenging the viewer's response and their destabilising their sense of aesthetic boundaries.

Those aware of eX de Medici's background will see a connection between her experience as a tattoo artist (some of the works would make truly epic tats) and the overall aesthetic of Spies Like Us, with its nod to the vanitas tradition. Not one to miss.

Image: eX de Medici, Persistence of Error, 2016.