Essay by Luke Foster
“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”
Pablo Picasso
The first coffee table artist book I bought was about the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and like the song I like the old stuff better than the new stuff by Regurgitator I like his early Blue and Rose period best.
“I see your band now and it’s not too bad
You’re nothing like you used to be
Please write some songs that really do not suck
Please become what you were before
I like your old stuff better than your new stuff (x4)
I try hard not to bring up the past
I’m sorry I had to again
You don’t know me I feel you are my friend
I’m trying not to be pretend”
Regurgitator
“Regurgitator are an Australian rock band from Brisbane, Queensland, formed in late 1993 by Quan Yeomans on lead vocals, guitar and keyboards; Ben Ely on bass guitar, keyboards and vocals; and Martin Lee on drums.” Wikipedia
I started to sing the lyrics of this song on the phone tonight while talking with my friend Ashraya when I was talking about how I like my earlier framed drawings better than my more recent stuff that shall be featured in my next solo show titled: Conceptual Art Mash Up.
The title Conceptual Art Mash Up is also a music reference as I heard about the term mash up when reading about the dance party music by Adrian Thomas also known as DJ Ajax who tragically died age 40 after being hit by a truck in Melbourne. The term mash up in the songs he made in his own label were an amalgamation of different songs mixed. And in reference to my show, it describes how my conceptual ideas are a mash up of all sorts of ideas through various mediums of video, animation and drawings framed and unframed and bound in books.
Adrian was one year older than me in high school at Saint Augustine’s at Brookvale in Sydney and then went to COFA the same art school as me but gave up a successful art career as a painter and lecturer to become a DJ and recording artist.
This next year is quite booked up for me with different projects including Conceptual Art Mash Up at Kirra Hill. The Dalai Lamas Stray Cat at Scratch Space in Marrickville Sydney, which is a video, drawing books and large A0 framed photographs. Then a residency at the Big Ci in Bilpin in the Blue Mountains and then off to Brooklyn New York in February 2024 for another month-long residency at Mothership NYC.
