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Brooding owls stare with dark intent from the corner of a room. A solitary woman walks through windswept fields. A Tudor house beckons. Strange, theatrical mise en scènes, frozen moments that leave the viewer out of time and place.
David Noonan grew up in the 1970s in the regional city of Ballarat, in the Australian state of Victoria. The townscape is defined by grand English Victorian architecture and wide tree-lined streets, a result of the wealth of early gold prospectors in the surrounding area. When the gold ran out Ballarat remained as a satellite city, caught at particular point in time—a remnant of distant Europe misplaced in the Australian bush. ‘I have a strong aesthetical connection to the place through its history’, Noonan says. ‘In some ways it was very romantic, it had a very European feel.’
Noonan’s significance as an artist is based in part on his multi-disciplinary approach; Jarrod Rawlins, co-director of Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, where Noonan exhibits, has commented: ‘He’s a multitask master, old school and new school, not versus’. As Noonan moves across disciplines from oil on canvas to installation, and from film to collage, he draws attention to the way materiality contributes to the impact of his work. His art is never simply about visuals, and almost always about creating ambience. There is not a single point of definition, but a resonance; and a sense of immersion is created.
With this in mind it would be incorrect to label Noonan a painter. He is also a craftsman, a sculptor, a film director, and a set designer. The recent exhibition ‘David Noonan: Films and Paintings 2001-2005’ at Monash University Museum of Art demonstrated the scope... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline