Monumental Nobodies by Matthew Quick

Status Update.

La Belle Epoque.

Occupational Health & Safety.

In the name of Beauty.

Domestic Goddess.

Coronation.

Crowning Glory.

Australian Artist, Matthew Quick in his studio.

When the US seized Baghdad, the soldiers celebrated by destroying art commissioned by the deposed leader. Removing contemporary politics, this destruction illustrates how little has changed psychologically in the 1500 years since the barbarian sack of Rome. With one notable difference, Rome was destroyed by uneducated warriors. In Baghdad, it was stage-managed for TV. These events became the inspiration for ‘Monumental Nobodies’ by award-winning Australian artist Matthew Quick.

Quick utilises images of power yet distorts meanings through a conceptual approach that reveals, with a fine humorous touch, pressing issues of society. Punctuating an arc through triumph and failure, the monuments that map the rise and fall of Empires seem somehow more poignant when the event for which they were created has faded into history.

With their conscious symbolism, ‘Monumental Nobodies’ provides the foundation for a revisionist take on the notions of beauty, pride, and nationalism. The aura of emperors and gods are eliminated by adding ordinary objects to replace their crowns and thrones, turning them into powerless nobodies. Matthew references individual freedom, social control, surveillance and the deceitful behaviour of rulers who intentionally fail to act as they speak. In ridiculing them, he plays with their initial grand goals and provides a refreshing look at the original motivations. Bloody brilliant.