Originally hailing from Perth, and now making a small Balinese village his working home, artist Fraser Anderson somehow managed to find his way to Melbourne on Thursday night thanks to local label Asuza.
Asuza, established in early 2008 is the brainchild of Dan Preston and Jonathon Redfern (AKA Jonny Goldcoast) and has over the years produced upscale clothing with an eccentric twist. This time around, however, they decided to add a new element to the label (think lifestyle, rather than just fashion line) by launching the works of Fraser Anderson as part of their first in-store guest artist exhibition.
Opening night of Anderson’s ‘Recedor’ exhibition was held at the second level concept store on Brunswick Street and drew an undeniably cool crowd; the kind that only Fitzroy can turn on. As guests arrived they filtered up the stairs heading for the makeshift bar (and the Grolsch beer) and along the way were met with the weird, wacky and wonderful works that Anderson is so profoundly known for. His use of unorthodox art materials is widely known to include anything from chocolate wrappers, balloon and thread, spray paint, resin and silly string, and he didn’t disappoint this time around.
Inspired by the empowering nature and unrestrained creations of the local Balinese he now breaks bread with, it is clear that Anderson enjoys the notion of creating standout pieces from the cheap, the impermanent and the obscure. His work could quite easily fall under the category of, “what is one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” yet Anderson makes it work, dutifully transforming changing states into harmonious abstracts of degradation. This was none more evident than in the paint-splattered canvasses, deflated post-celebratory balloons stretched over wire and found objects doused in spray paint and silly string. Each piece almost left you feeling like you had woken to the aftermath of last night’s party, blissfully minus the searing headache.
The visual explosion that only Anderson could provide by way of a perspex box is definitely worth a look in. His ‘out there’ creations perfectly complimented the more natural materials and timber fittings of the multi-purpose space of Asuza’s store and will run until the 27th of March as part of the LMFF cultural program.
RECEDOR runs from March 18th to 27th.
ASUZA’s flagship store is located at:
Level 1, 262 Brunswick Street,
Fitzroy VIC.
