Callum Morton, Mayor, City of Melbourne, 2013, cover ups, commission, Tom Roberts, Portrait of Alderman Samuel Amess
Summary
Artist Statement
‘Mayor’ is the result of a significant period of engagement with the City of Melbourne collection, which included researching objects and the spaces in which they are housed and exhibited. I entertained numerous directions for this work, and the final outcome is surprisingly simple – but simultaneously concise and mysterious.
The painting I base this work on is Tom Roberts’ ‘Portrait of Alderman Samuel Amess’ (1886). I chose it because it was installed in the City Gallery for the exhibition ‘Good Looking’, so I could get to it easily, and because it was one of many mayoral portraits that hang in the Yarra Room, where in the dim light they appear like blocky shadows high above one’s head.
In recent years, I have made several works I call ‘cover ups’. I choose an object, cover it with a particular fabric and then have it 3D-scanned to produce a computer model. This is then cut in polyurethane and resin before being painted to mimic the real thing. The resining process is manipulated to produce myriad holes in the object’s surface, giving it an antiquated appearance.
The idea was born from making cubbies with my kids and from an encounter with a painting in a museum storeroom, over which a bag had been placed to protect it from the light. I was reminded of artists who had covered, wrapped or hidden things as artworks: Christo, Man Ray, Magritte and Mel Ramsden. In my works, I have often hidden or removed a narrative element from the viewer, making the full picture hard to discern. In my mind, the uncanny object that emerges is open to a raft of shifting readings.
Such is the case for ‘Mayor’. Is it a work being protected or is it about to be unveiled? Aren’t these duties of protection – of the office, of the city – and unveiling part of the role of mayor? The work appears soft, but up close its hardness is revealed. Does the draped fabric relate to mayoral robes? Is there a real painting under the deep green fabric, a green that reminds one of town hall interiors? If so, whose painting is it and what is its subject?
It would be lovely to think that one day my ‘Mayor’ could take its place alongside the other mayors in the Yarra Room. In a sense, it has become a portrait of every mayor who has ever held the office.
Callum Morton
