Gonkar Gyatso | Three Realms

Institute of Modern Art, 20/8 – 15/10/11

 “EDUCATION REVOLUTION?” “WHO’S IN CHARGE?” Gonkar Gyatso asks, and coupled with his witty collaged drawings you can’t tell if it’s funnier than it is serious. Repetitiously hung, the collages which make up 108 Burning Questions fill the room. The tight hanging of the small, engaging works mean viewers file around the gallery’s perimeter in a procession not unlike the check-out line at the supermarket. A fitting outcome considering Gyatso’s work deals with themes of consumerism, globalisation and identity. In each small frame a ‘burning question’ encircles a montage of images lifted from pop-culture and advertising, enhanced with drawn elements. At the centre of each is a BRAND NAME beer bottle label, a recurring idol offering a rhythmic continuity to the series.   

Spotlight and central, a sculptural Buddha complete with chakras glitters with multicoloured snippets from magazines, newspapers, novelty stickers and shopping catalogues. Again the overwhelming use of colourful headlines and images achieves a fine balance of controlled chaos, a metaphor for the modern condition which extends throughout most of Gyatso’s work. The contemporary overlapping that is occurring between traditional eastern and western centres is another of Gyatso’s consistent themes, which is certainly most successfully addressed in Bhudda.  

In the adjacent room a large text based work reads “EXCUSE ME WHILE I KISS THE SKY.” The phrase surrounds the viewer immediately evoking an audible memory of Hendrix rasping the line, his psychedelic guitars embodied by the brightly coloured stickers and dripping charcoal. The powerful over-all impact of the work is heightened by closer inspection of each letter, revealing the interplay between the disparate stickers. A unicorn jumps off a convertible and into a hamburger there, while not far off Snoopy smiles dopily at a telephone booth. The impossible world Gyatso has created within the letters of this iconic statement, where recognisable images interact seemingly randomly, speaks concisely of the cultural collision that is globalisation.

 

Three Realms is a series of three survey exhibitions of Gyatso’s work to be hosted by a handful of Brisbane’s public galleries, the first being held at the IMA. If this initial taste is anything to go by the next two instalments, to be held at Griffith University Art Gallery and UQ Art Museum in February of 2012, will be events not to be missed.

Lisa Bryan-Brown