Ken Whisson: As If

Overview

Ken Whisson’s connection to the world may well be ever-changing. And the world, too, is changing its connection with him. The As If collection — titled in reference to Immanuel Kant: ‘to live as if’, and the Paris surrealists' ‘let us live as if the world really exists’ — depicts the chaos, perversity and human spirit of a transient world.

Here is an Australian artist who, though practising for sixty years, is decidedly underrated and obscure — although one gets the impression he may prefer it this way. Growing up and studying in Victoria, but based in Italy since the 1970s, Whisson’s paintings can be seen as a carefully curated amalgamation of journeys. This expansive retrospective is stuffed with a glut of glorious paintings, drawings, studies and books he has been inspired by.

And for all that the artist himself is somewhat enigmatic, within his work there is a sense of the man behind them. Be it in the tobacco stains breathed into the oil paints over time, or the frequently rude humour of the figurative work.

Here, Whisson’s figures levitate within the picture’s peripherals, and their bodies contort dreamily. Objects — vehicles, animals, humans, sheds — are crammed into the canvas; their relationships with each other created through their proximity. It is at once methodical and messy, and speaks of the world’s improbability. Landscapes are fragmented into snapshots, like the view from a car window, and this frenetic movement denotes the journey motif Whisson does so well.

His earlier work is painted on board, and the paint, unabsorbed, sits richly on the surface. It is floating, superficial, incomplete. Here you will find ships, cars, aeroplanes and plains — dissected, deconstructed and floating. And in their lack of grounding they speak of a reluctance to commit to, or an inability to find, home.

There are dream-like qualities to the exhibition: primary colours are grafted together; people are delicious assemblages of limbs, lips and bulbous heads; and a delightfully theatrical sense of humour. Whisson said that perhaps “we might need to relate together by entertaining each other.” Come, be entertained, and think about the world as if you know it.

Image: Books and Landscapes, 1987-94, courtesy of MCA © of artist.