The first two decades of my life were spent growing up in the western suburbs of Sydney. Long summers were spent walking or riding my bike in the blazing sun through suburbia. The concrete and bitumen seemed to melt beneath my thongs as I made my way past lone gum trees and street signs casting crisp shadows, sun-bleached billboards advertising products no longer available, deceased sulo bins, and nature strips with rock and roll haircuts.
One of my favourite visual artists when I was in high school was Jeffrey Smart. I remember seeing several of his paintings at the Art Gallery of NSW and being blown away with how unique and refreshing they were. Using subject matter which may have otherwise been considered throwaway, ugly, or mundane and turning it into something beautiful.
Corrugated shipping containers became a perfect study of light and shape. Street signs and kerb-sides reduced the composition down to simple blocks which found beauty in their simplicity.
George Byrne (also Australian born) found his place in this same world and brought it to the world of Instagram. As such, his medium is photography rather than painting. And rather than capturing the industrial space that much of Smart’s work did, Byrne instead captures the world of suburbia I am all too familiar with.
The subject matter – block colours, kerb-sides, street signs, bollards, road markings, palm trees and random passers-by in the middle of nowhere – puts the focus on light, shadow and composition in the same way that Smart did. It’s abstract, yet familiar.
Byrne lives in California and a lot of his photography has taken place between Los Angeles and Palm Springs. I’ll be in Palm Springs in five weeks and plan to channel (or rip off?) his aesthetic.