Neon Parc

In 2012, Binns considered the conceptual paintings of Australian artist Gordon Bennett (1955 - 2014) created under the pseudonym of ‘John Citizen’, then carried out a series of paintings which were exhibited in a very short-lived group exhibition (‘Like Mike’, a tribute to the artist Mike Brown) in 2013 at Linden Gallery. Ten or so years later, Binns is revisiting and extending this series.

In 1995, Gordon Bennett created John Citizen to have a neutral artist identity to work from, to avoid the identity politics and stereotypes which surrounded the Aboriginal side of his identity (his other heritage was Anglo-Celtic). In doing so, Bennett considered John Citizen to be ‘An abstraction of the Australian Mr average, the Australian everyman.’ (1) The idea of this fluid identity and the conceptual space it speaks to, intrigued Binns, who wondered whether the identity is so fluid and open ended, that it could be interchangeable. This, as well as a general admiration for Bennett’s work, compelled Fergus to engage in a series of paintings in conversation with John Citizen, with the hope that John Citizen would respond. However, the passing of Bennett in 2014, meant that this possible visual or written exchange could not be realised.

In addition to works by John Citizen, Bennett produced a series of paintings under his own name, appropriating the New York artist Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), titled; ‘Notes to Basquiat’. Similarly, Binns’ exhibition echoes this dialogue and repeats the gesture to Bennett/Citizen, with the title, ‘Notes To Citizen’.

In ‘Notes to Citizen’ the playful painting ‘Jellybeans’ (2013) is a direct reference to John Citizen’s ‘Interior (Beige Lounge)’ (2009), albeit with a much brighter lolly-like palette, and a bowl of jellybeans on the table, echoing the shapes in the paintings on the walls. During the making of these works produced in 2013, Binns was looking, reading and thinking about the fertile conceptual space around identity politics and art in post-colonial Australia.

As Binns’ project grew, the recognisable imagery and structural elements of his Citizen paintings began to weave with other ideas, artists and symbology. Binns incorporated recognizable motifs from Australian artists such as Howard Arkley and Albert Namatjira, most directly in his continuing series ‘Interior (Smoke And Mirror Images)’ 2013-current. The paintings layer the spraypainted windows with pink and yellow curtains of Arkley’s, onto Namatjira’s sublime stretches of the Arrernte landscape - perhaps alluding to the idea that Indigenous art is often viewed through a Western lens. Binns’ felt a synergy with both of these artists - Arkley’s oeuvre was defined by his obsession with Australian suburbia, often depicting houses and interiors with no particular resident or owner; and Namatjira, who painted the environment in a Western tradition of landscape, which for him was an act of reclamation. (2)

One of the newer works Binns has developed is the largest painting in ‘Notes to Citizen’. ‘Phantasmagoria (Artificial landscape + Cooks Cottage = Share House)’ (2024), is a work with a landscape created using Artificial Intelligence and then painted by Binns, allowing new narratives to be generated and to forge a level of distance between the artist and the content of the painting, akin to a dream or mirage. Binns sees AI as a tool which indiscriminately interprets the social, cultural and historical fabric of the human developed world.

In this work—which Binns considers the nexus of the exhibition—the viewer sees a sparse red-dirt landscape dotted with trees, situating a tiny Howard Arkley airbrushed version of Cook’s Cottage, rendered in pinks, greens and yellows. It is from this ‘share house’ that the position of the exhibition is projected. The house is stationed on a barren (stolen) Indigenous landscape and within this house is the genesis of the (Citizen) Interiors. From the windows, the occupant looks out from between (Arkley’s) curtains and onto the natural (Namatjira) environment.

‘Notes to Citizen’ utilizes acts of mirroring, appropriating, and subverting – traditions of postmodernism. Fictional narratives and identity politics mingle here with Australian art history. Fergus Binns has been negotiating what it means to be an artist in Australia over the course of his career. Gordon Bennett wanted John Citizen to be ‘anyone the viewer wanted him to be’ (3) , and for Binns, that was a fertile invitation to make a connection. This gave rise to a rich tapestry of homage, symbolism and storytelling.

1. “Gordon Bennett”, Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney: https://www.mca.com.au/collection/artists/gordon-bennett/
2. “Albert Namatjira, Painting Country”, National Gallery of Australia: https://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/namatjira/
3. Gordon Bennett, “Conversation: Bill Wright Talks to Gordon Bennett,” interview by Bill Wright, in Gordon Bennett ed. Kelly Gellatly (Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2007).

Fergus Binns is an artist who is based in the Macedon Ranges on Taungurung country. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting) from the Victorian College of the Arts. Recent solo exhibitions include Memory Cleaner, Mary Cherry, Collingwood, 2021; Medicine Walls, Tcb Art Inc, Brunswick, 2021; To the right music, the Diamond will orbit the Moth, Schoolhouse Studios, Collingwood, 2016; Possibly etc, Tcb Art Inc, Melbourne, 2015; Spinifex Songs, Watch This Space, Alice Springs, 2014; Rarities, Scarities, Ruins and Ripe Fruit, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2014; Studio 12, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, 2013; Ali Baba Squinting and the Watership Wind Band, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2012; Toy Paintings, Uplands Gallery, Melbourne, 2011; Toy Paintings, Chalk Horse, Sydney, 2010. He was a Gertrude Contemporary studio artist from 2012 to 2013 and his work is held in various public and private collections.