Suburban Similes

David Attwood

Opening 07.01.15 6-8pm
Artist Talks 29.01.15 6-7pm

‘Suburban Similes’ is a solo exhibition of new works by Perth based artist David Attwood. The exhibition features a series of text-based drawings that take common and well-known Australian similes and replaces references to ‘life in the bush’ with more up to date equivalents, modifications and adaptations that reflect on contemporary Australian suburbia. Drawing on his own suburban existence, Attwood replaces colloquialisms such as “flat out like a lizard drinking”, “weak as cat’s piss” or “as dry as a dead dingoes donger” with references to budget clothing chains, television and cheap groceries. Such themes are synonymous with the proletariat banality of contemporary Australian life in the suburbs, and Suburban Similes alludes to these familiar tropes, conventions and practices. The exhibition continues Attwood’s interests in Australian folklore and the suburban everyday, and marks a shift toward drawing and text as vehicles for addressing contemporary Australian identity.