Three Australians in Singapore
Lutz Presser, Colin Reaney, Karee Dahl
The word 'I' is used as a subject of the verb, while the word 'me' is used as the object. It is, therefore, the object of the self which Lutz Presser, Colin Reaney and Karee Dahl want to deal with in their show entitled <Me Me Me>. But does the title donate the superlative emphasis of the self, or are there three individual ME's? This ambiguity is intentional and highlights the possible paradox involved in three very different artists having a combined show: one has to deal with the necessary congruency of a single exhibition and the distinct and sometimes incompatible differences of the individual works. Even though their works may be dealing with notions of 'me', the artists' approaches, intentions, and media are by no means similar.
That the three Australians presented their show at Plastique Kinetic Worms, an artist run gallery located in Chinatown, in Singapore, serves as an interesting prologue to the subject of the self. And it is within this context that one could begin to read the multiple levels of meaning present in the works, which deal with cultural identity, the phenomenological notion of the self and the notion of gender specificity.
In the works by Lutz Presser there is an appearance of an almost carnivalesque celebration of cultures, and different cultures, through the appropriation and mixing of icons and objects of ordinary ritual and perception. Presser's casual and un-formalistic use of miniature plastic red Chinese lanterns, ultramen toy figures, Christmas lights, a glowing crucifix, ceramic statues of the Chinese deity of prosperity, etcetera, composed around popular images of middle-class suburban white families, gives a humorous reading of one's cultural make-up. These materials operate