Jay Younger’s first solo show in Brisbane for some years includes two series: Demagogues and Megalomaniacs (2018) and Queensland (2017). Her exhibition is a powerful return to earlier concerns in image making and both photographic series take politicians as their subject matter. Younger uses ‘smoke and mirrors’ to comment on spin, chance, deception, reflection, and obscuration – albeit in a foggy, enigmatic context.
The Demagogues and Megalomaniacs (D&M) series questions the absurdity of neoliberal and despotic political leaders in the national and global arenas. This series employs a satirical photomontage drawn from popular culture – with Bush (George W.), Reagan and Thatcher, Pauline Hanson, Clive Palmer, Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un (KJU) as it’s abominable targets.
Younger reflects on her surprise and dismay at the unprecedented and continually unfolding political ploys:
I had already completed the Trump image and I was finalising the KJU shoot on the eve of the denuclearisation summit between Trump and KJU. The next morning, I awoke to view the absurdly propagandistic film trailer created by the Trump team that comically reverses nuclear missiles launching. Obviously, the film was created by one crazed megalomaniac for another. Clearly insanity rules. And now, just as one thought Clive (Palmer) was done, he’s back and billboarding us with ‘Make Australia Great’ in preparation for his next political manoeuvre.
The Demagogues and Megalomaniacs images are photographs of a process that combines laser cut and etched mirrors with smoke, an uncontrollable element that literally takes form depending on the way the wind blows.
The motivation behind Queensland (2017) sprang from a desire to engage with the waves of cultural loss and political amnesia that Queenslanders have suffered. In the Queensland series, the ephemeral elements of smoke and reflection are combined with appropriated news photography and popular icons (such as a palm tree, or a Dreamworld roller coaster) to look back to the political foundations of contemporary Queensland.
Conversation: Friday 3 August 2018, 5:15-5:45pm
Opening: Friday 3 August 2018, 6-8pm
