Artist Talk – Efflorescence – David Mutch

Efflorescence takes its aesthetic cues from street furniture and the infrastructure of outdoor advertising: public spaces managed by private interests. As an increasingly central component of the urban streetscape, these sites leverage the design and visibility of commuter shelters for use as commercial advertising space.

The maximisation of the advertiser’s message is integral to the materials of these structures: their smooth, low-grain, surfaces of steel, aluminium, Perspex and glass recede into the background, allowing the advertisements they hold to capture the attention of commuters.

Efflorescence is interested in the disruption of these smooth surfaces, as when a poster slips, revealing dusty fluorescent lamps and grimy mechanisms, or diamond tipped vandals etch glistening graffiti into the glass. The works in this exhibition mimic the edge-lit Perspex construction of corporate street furniture, but remove advertising from this. Via this aesthetic strategy, Efflorescence shifts our attention to the formal components of these ubiquitous urban structures, and also towards moments of resistance against their intended use.

Artist Talk: 11am Saturday 14th September

Address: 11/198 Adelaide Street, ANZAC Square Arcade, Brisbane, Australia 4000.

Open: Friday 10am – 2pm, Saturday 10am -12pm (During Exhibitions)