CLUTCH Collective Presents: Chris Bennie | The Citizen
Words by Alexander Kucharski
Chris Bennie works in video, construction, performance, painting, photography, and installation. His work renders the benign as questionable, the banal as fantastic, the quotidian as profound and the monumental as prosaic. His intrigue for diverse subjects like the moon, discarded paintings, nuclear reactor control rooms, deities, a flood-affected caravan, paint-splattered floors, sunsets, dancing, animals and the act of urinating (to name only a few) undergo what he describes as cultural fiscal-value analysis. The results provide new propositions for what was previously assumed. While a list like this sounds chaotic, his work has an unmistakable style that foregrounds authenticity over entertainment and time over fragmentation.
He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Clayton Utz Art Award (2014); Gold Coast Art Award (2012); Swell Sculpture Award (2013); Australia Council for the Arts mid-career New Work grant (2013); and Regional Arts Development Fund (2013). In 2014 Chris researched tsunami-affected communities and objects in Japan as part of an Asialink Residency at Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo.
His work has been included in national and international group exhibitions including: Ecstasy: Baroque and Beyond, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane (2017); Innerspace, Canberra Contemporary Artspace (2015); The National Artists Self Portrait Prize, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane (2013); New Psychedelia, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane (2011); Photo LA, Los Angeles (2010); Biennale of Sydney: Revolutions – Forms That Turn (2008); Contemporary Australia: Optimism, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2008); and +Plus Factors, Australian Centre of Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2006).
Clutch Collective Address: 98 Montpelier Rd, Bowen Hills QLD 4006
