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Marika Borlase examines contemporary culture and aspirations
of fame with her wry visual imagery.
Using heightened colour and a complex overlay of patterns,
her uber-chic figures parade amidst classical architecture.
Her works mirror western society's materialistic mania
providing a context reminiscent of Rocco excess.
Placing
famous entertainment and sporting figures such as:Kylie, Kate Moss and Don Bradman on pedestals, Borlase
freezes their iconic forms. Posed
and self aware, these figures appear as though sleepwalking
through a very public life and become props or aspiration
mantels rather than individuals.
Borlase's
colour palette is borrowed from the make-believe world
of comics and interior decorating colour charts. Her
colour is as radiant as it is disorientating. The
flat colour areas are further embellished with added
layers of airbrushed grids, pixels or patterns to
give a sense of colour vibrancy and detail.
These complex environments are reinforced by a compositional
pandemonium and two-dimensionality suggestive of Lichtenstein's
later work. Through the layering of images from different
contexts and time frames, Borlase is investigating
the terrain of collective culture. These works ask
questions about the meaning of being an individual
in a world bombarded with images of success, from
the subtly personal to the overtly commercial.
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