Wash the Pixels from My Hands by Ross Vaughan By Ellen Hubble
THE illusion of three-dimensional shapes created on a two-dimensional surface and the echoes of domestic spying are just some of the mysterious facets of classical surrealist artist Ross Vaughan’s new exhibition, Human Pastiche Prism.
Ross has combined multiple elements as a homage to a parody of past styles. His images are borrowed from vintage magazines, found photographs and old studio portraits of strangers before being manually pasted into collage and then digitally manipulated to create weird and bizarre references for his paintings.
Using surrealist techniques and limited but arbitrary subject matter, he allows his subconscious instincts to guide his aesthetic decisions.
THE illusion of three-dimensional shapes created on a two-dimensional surface and the echoes of domestic spying are just some of the mysterious facets of classical surrealist artist Ross Vaughan’s new exhibition, Human Pastiche Prism.
Ross has combined multiple elements as a homage to a parody of past styles. His images are borrowed from vintage magazines, found photographs and old studio portraits of strangers before being manually pasted into collage and then digitally manipulated to create weird and bizarre references for his paintings.
Using surrealist techniques and limited but arbitrary subject matter, he allows his subconscious instincts to guide his aesthetic decisions.
“Within this process,” Vaughan says, “I figure out what’s going on conceptually once I’ve already begun, and then extrapolate on those themes, stretching them until they are resolved. I try to keep things strange and ambiguous.”
Although a pastiche can be a hodgepodge of borrowed images, his creations tend to complement these original images. By leaving it up to the viewers’ imaginations to interpret and generate meaning, he allows us the same surrealist process of using our subconscious to scour importance from nonsense. Lack of understanding, however, doesn’t imply the artworks are meaningless.
Although a pastiche can be a hodgepodge of borrowed images, his creations tend to complement these original images. By leaving it up to the viewers’ imaginations to interpret and generate meaning, he allows us the same surrealist process of using our subconscious to scour importance from nonsense. Lack of understanding, however, doesn’t imply the artworks are meaningless.
 Concept Creep by Ross Vaughan  Rona by Ross Vaughan | “Stuff floats freely in a void,” he says. “Serious things collide and interact with stupid things, briefly generating meaning, or seeming to.” Timelessness and absurdity beg our attention throughout the body of artworks. Who are these people? Our security is challenged as we recognise familiar figureheads who have been dragged from their historical settings and reinstalled in an everyday genre of postmodern yesteryear. Others are simply … who? Vaughan’s mastery of realism and attention to detail are steeped in the true style of classical surrealism. We see not only what the eye reflects but something else. The portraits are exquisitely rendered as these subjects from the past peer as intensely at us as we peer at them. While most images are monochromatic, his use of limited and subtle colour adds to the mystery and recreates a view through the dull veil we experience upon recall of a dream. While absorbed in our own subconscious bewilderment, we are reminded of the lyrics “I’m only human after all”, from Rag ‘n’ Bone Man’s song Human, as we venture into these strange and ambiguous visual concepts within the pastiche prism. |
Now residing in Bass Coast, Ross Vaughan has exhibited extensively in solo and small groups throughout Melbourne galleries in Brunswick, Collingwood, Fitzroy and Northcote and internationally in Spain and Finland.
He has also run workshops in portraiture and oil painting techniques at Bass Coast Artists’ Society,The Goods Shed, Wonthaggi.
Human Pastiche Prism runs until June 21 at ArtSpace Gallery, 1 Bent Street, Wonthaggi. Open every day 10am-4pm. COVID restrictions apply. The official opening has been postponed to June 13, COVID permitting. For further information, phone 5672 5767 or email [email protected]
He has also run workshops in portraiture and oil painting techniques at Bass Coast Artists’ Society,The Goods Shed, Wonthaggi.
Human Pastiche Prism runs until June 21 at ArtSpace Gallery, 1 Bent Street, Wonthaggi. Open every day 10am-4pm. COVID restrictions apply. The official opening has been postponed to June 13, COVID permitting. For further information, phone 5672 5767 or email [email protected]