Oogga Booga

Overview

Art goes through cycles. Artists rebel against an old idea and forget that the old one itself rebelled against the one before. Vermeer's generation discovered the appeal of new technology with the camera obscura. Picasso's discovered themselves through the informalities they saw, and thought they saw, in African Art. The Futurists rediscovered machines and thought they saw their lives in war and manifiestos. The four artists in the latest exhibition at the Paper Mill — Oogga Booga — have looked inside and turned back to their instincts for inspiration.

Hossein Ghaemi channels things and people from deep inside himself, most often in the form of his artistic alter-egos. Ben Ryan brought his talents up from Hobart last year for First Draft's Names and Places, and this time plans to reeducate the audience's senses around the gallery space. Claire Finneran's work will delve into the yen for tribalism, while Ben Terakes explores nature and nurture. So enter the Paper Mill's triangular gallery and resist your natural instincts to roller-skate on its flat open spaces — while Oogga Booga's name may be flippant, the works themselves look at sterner things.