![]() Mark Braunias has been busy in his notebook. He has always drawn fluidly and quick, with almost diaristic intent. What surprises here are his typewritten texts. Like droll visual twitter, these pagenotes resonate with (in)significance. And they make you chuckle..... A Message from Planet ZonkedAugust 08 - September 19, 2009 Mark Braunias
![]() With an immediacy and effortlessness that belie their cleverness, the profusion of works that make up A Message from Planet Zonked proffer witty, satirical observations on science, society and life in all its diversity. And quirky indeed are these observations. If the exhibition title really does come from afar, there is nonetheless a familiar, even local flavour to the insights that echo around the gallery walls. Aliens, to be sure, do converse in a number of the drawings, but so too do cats, cows, caterpillars, camels and an extraordinary array of creatures great and small, each articulating opinions and comments from a very personal perspective. They are, as Christopher Moore writes in an article entitled Top Drawer, GO Arts, The Press, August 28, 2009, “…characters caught in the headlights like possums on a night road.” ![]() Braunias, who believes drawing to be essential to the human spirit, describes the ideas for this current body of works as a stream of consciousness, going off at different tangents but linked by the drawing style and messages. He sees the beauty of drawings as allowing a conversation between the viewer and the artist. By putting his characters behind a 1970’s Brother typewriter, Braunias lets them talk to the audience, mistakes, twink and all. The directness and the mechanical aspects of the typewritten text have just the right visual weight and wonkiness to express the intimate, human quality of these works.
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Selected works
Details of works: Golden Home acrylic and inks on canvas 2008 1500 x 2100mm Untitled mixed media on board 2009 1000 x 700mm Table of Periodic Elements (Zonked) mixed media on paper 2009 2920 x 3780mm approx A message from Planet Zonked Mixed media on paper 2009 the framed drawings within this work are sold individually Studies for Golden Home I – III acrylic and ink on board 2008 320 x 220mm |