exhibition wall label
Sydney artist Mitch Cairns (b1984) presents oil paintings, text-based bronze plates and a power pole sculpture in his exhibition Restless Legs, its title referencing the sensation he feels sometimes while reading in bed. This disparate body of work is informed by Cairns’ literary interests and influences, his inner-city locale and the humour and pathos of daily life.
Language – the exchange of information through visual, written and verbal modes of communication – underpins several works in Restless Legs. Pictures of letters and numbers, quotations from books and text messages, and a recontextualised power pole (which formerly transmitted telephone calls) all allude to language playfully. Indeed, Cairns uses language as a ‘visual cue’ in his practice.
Nature also emerges as a significant theme, with land, sky, water, vegetation and the remnant of a tree all featuring in the show. Inspired by Italo Calvino’s 1963 book Marcovaldo and its title character’s affinity with the natural world, Cairns has portrayed himself imaginatively as a floral still life. This painting belongs to Cairns’ series of self-portraits as trees, bookmarks, bookends and restless legs, which represent traits and characteristics that cannot be described by an image of his likeness.
Restless Legs has been commissioned by the Art Gallery for the Contemporary Projects series, which showcases new works by contemporary artists from NSW.