Despard Gallery is proud to share a special new major artwork by contemporary Tasmanian artist Patrick
Hall.
With a career spanning four decades, Hall has forged an international reputation for his interdisciplinary approach and seamless blending of form, function and concept. Hall’s practice is easily distinguished by the innovative application of everyday materials combined with poetic verse. Storytelling has become a fundamental part of Hall’s work, where autobiographical snippets and personal reflections become a vehicle to examine broader social issues and mounting global conflicts.
With his first major cabinet work in nearly two years, Patrick has returned to a particularly poignant subject first explored in his solo exhibition in 2023, The Paper It’s Written On. Hall has reinterpreted the admired work of paper Children Of The Atom into a three-dimensional fully functioning sculptural cabinet. Lining the front of the four drawers are overlapping classic 1950 science fiction books and comics, slowly looking pigment as they rise towards the top. Here stands a solemn and isolated robot figure, symbolising a loss of innocence and optimism as a result of a growing list of significant technological achievements and the uncertainty of a peaceful and safe future as a consequence.
In Children of the Atom a forlorn Robot of white paper and defined only in shadow, stands on a hill (or perhaps burial mound) made from the colourful mastheads of classic science fiction books and magazines.The higher up the slope the colour fades until all pigment is gone and only paper remains.The piece speaks to the staggering human achievements of the 20th century: the splitting of the atom and man walking on the Moon – and the gradual dimming of optimism, the slow fading of the vision splendid.
Letters pop up form the faded pages of the books where the robot stands, recalling the passage of text written by Hall in the original artwork.
WITH THE AMBITION OF HEROES, WITH THEIR PLANS TO LOOK OVER THE FLAT EDGE OF THE KNOWN.THEY LAID CLAIM TO THE SECRETS OF THE HEAVENS AND UNLOCKED THE CHAINED REACTIONS. WITH HORNED RIMMED VISIONS OF ELEVATIONS AND TRAJECTORIES – A PRINT MADE BY GIANT STEPS. A PRESSING IN THE STILLNESS OF THE ETERNAL TALC – A ZIG-ZAG TREAD OF A SOUL UTTERLY ALONE. WHAT DID THEY THINK WHEN THEIR WORLD BORN OF SPARKS TURNED TO DUST. JUST PILLARS OF SALT. SHADOWS CAUTERIZED IN THE LIGHT OF A MILLION SUNS. DID THEY GAZE BACK IN HORROR AND SAY,“OH GOD WHAT HAVEWE DONE”.
Patrick Hall is an established contemporary artist based in Hobart,Tasmania. With a practice that spans several decades, Hall has established a national reputation for his uniquely intricate sculptural works, exhibiting both nationally and internationally. Major national exhibitions include a survey show hosted by theTasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in 2015, as well as installations for Dark Mofo festival in 2016 and 2019. Hall has also exhibited in numerous national art fairs between 2008 and 2022, including the Melbourne Art fair and Sydney Contemporary. International exhibitions include Theatre of the World, toured by the Museum of Old & New Art (MONA) in 2013 to La Maison Rouge, Paris, as well as regular participation at SOFA (Sculpture, Objects, Functional Art) in Chicago and New York, between 1996 and 2005. Hall’s work is held in significant public and private collections nationally, including the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the Museum of Old and New Art [MONA], the Power House Museum, Sydney and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
