The great metaphysical interior
Imants TILLERS: artist
This painting uses cultural quotation to express ideas about cultural displacement. Its physical make-up is based on a canvas-board grid-system that Tillers devised in 1983 (and used until 1991) that references the de-personalised systems theory and the processes of mechanised cultural production. This is juxtaposed against the very human, painterly touch of each unit. At this point in his career, Tillers was influenced by post-modern ideas and was against the idea of a particular sense of place and local culture. The title of this work refers to de Chirico's 1917 painting of the same name. Depicting an Australian interior over which various, dislocated forms from the history of modern art hover, Tillers captures this country's geographical and artistic distance from European centres and evokes the way colonial cultures are arbitrarily formed through chance encounters and the clash of conflicting codes.
Title
The great metaphysical interior
Artist/Maker and role
Imants TILLERS: artist
Date
1983
Medium
synthetic polymer paint on 170 canvas boards
Measurements
25.0 x 38.2 cm (each panel)
254.0 x 648.0 cm (overall)
254.0 x 648.0 cm (overall)
Credit line
Purchased 1984
© Imants Tillers. Licensed by VISCOPY, 2008
The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia
Accession number
1984/00P8