This Mess We’re In explores the chaos and catastrophes that have become white noise in our everyday lives. Through a visual anthology of failures, propositions and imagined futures, Brisbane-based artist Pat Hoffie presents us with a series of mise en scènes where the borderlines between the factual and the fantastic disintegrate.
Across three distinct bodies of work, the artist chronicles her observations of disasters that are both personal and more broadly socio-political. Hoffie’s imagery traces connections between forces majeures, the icons of social media and DIY instruction manuals, responding to the famous challenge of writer Samuel Beckett “to find a form that accommodates the mess”.
Ever since the universe was born out of the violence and chaos of the Big Bang, calamity and tragedy have been persistent agents for change. And in each successive generation, art has provided a means for responding to the chaos with candour, calculated risk, humour and hope.
Image: Pat HOFFIE ‘Force Majeure (Underworld Bunny)’ 2018, watercolour and gouache on tracing paper. Courtesy of the artist.
