Scott Redford

(Australia 1962– )

Title

Surf painting / blood disco

Year

2001

Media category

Painting

Materials used

resin over acrylic on foamcore

Dimensions

240.0 x 120.0cm

Credit

Contemporary Collection Benefactors 2002

Accession number

306.2002

Copyright

Location

Not on display

Further information

Scott Redford's layered body of work embodies a synthesis of regionalism, identity, abstraction and pop culture. He is one of Australia's finest 'post-conceptual' painters, as well as working with sculpture and photography.

Redford has exhibited widely in Australia and the very extensive literature on his practice, including two substantial monographic publications, is an indication of the appeal his work has had to writers, critics and other artists. In addition to a very sophisticated engagement with current theoretical concerns, his work is very accessible as he utilises a visual language derived equally from abstract painting and pop/media culture. He has been influential on a younger generation of artists, an influence which has at times has been overlooked, perhaps because of his resolute commitment to staying in Brisbane.

'Surf painting / blood disco' is a really great example of Redford's 'surf paintings', where he creates artworks from the same materials and processes used to make surfboards. Growing up on the Gold Coast and living in Brisbane, Redford has used the surfboard as a locating icon, a distinctively Australian and Queensland symbol of local culture and aspirations. While many of his 'surf paintings' have been figurative, with paintings of high rises and palm trees, this one brilliantly incorporates his interest in modernism, identity and sub-cultures.

The blue stripes on the red ground could be hard edge abstraction in revved up colours, a ducco version of Barnett Newman or Ellsworth Kelly, or equally they could be racing stripes from the souped-up hotrod decal in the corner. They recall the car paint used in Ian Burn's 'Blue Reflex', in the AGNSW collection. The car has flames across the body and bonnet and the words 'blood disco' a reference to HIV and AIDS. This work situates itself between these references as well as Redford's interest in modernist formalism as a visual language available in a regional version made "dense with desire, physicality and politics". (Schubert, 'Learn by Heart')

Bibliography (4)

Anthony Bond (England; Australia) (Commissioning Editor), Wayne Tunnicliffe (New Zealand; Australia) (Commissioning Editor), Contemporary: Art Gallery of New South Wales Contemporary Collection, 2006, 236, 237 (colour illus.).

'Year in review' pg.14-35, Art Gallery of New South Wales Annual Report 2003 2003, 2003, 18.

'Acquisitive minds' by Connell Nisbet, pg. 23-27, Look Dec 2003-Jan 2004, Dec 2003-Jan 2004, 23 (colour illus.).

'Recent museum acquisitions: contemporary art' by Alison Harper, pg. 114-117., Art and Australia (Vol. 41, No. 1) Sep 2003-Nov 2003, Sep 2003-Nov 2003, 116 (colour illus.).

Exhibition history (2)

(Scott Redford), Bellas Milani Gallery, 2001–2001.

Scott Redford: Blood disco, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 13 Dec 2007–09 Mar 2008.