Jon Campbell is a westie made good. He's an artist and musician who has consistently celebrated suburban Australian popular culture with both warmth and humour mixed with rock n roll grit. It is a handmade, homegrown kind of art that is at once pop and folk.
And he is also the man behind the very secret and very exciting major commission about to be unveiled at this year's Melbourne Art Fair.
The Vine went along to visit Jon at his current inner-suburban studio to see if we could get a glimpse of what he's planning for the big, fancy reveal of his new work.
On the table Jon is piecing together a crafty applique from tea towels. A possum face stares out from a patchwork slogan that says "Kebabs". We flip through deconstructed LP covers and talk about the best fish n chips in Melbourne.
“I grew up in Altona in Melbourne’s western suburbs and this has had a big effect on my work,” explains Campbell. “I think a kind of ‘westie’, working class feel still influences my work. It’s had an effect on what I think is important and what needs to be the subject of my work. And has actually made me have a more tolerant, open view of the world.”
There's a
blog, and on that blog there is an impressive photo essay of Jon's vision of Footscray and the western suburbs. The DIY signage. Franco Cozzo's yellow van. The pubs. The graffiti. This is the stuff from which Jon's art springs.
Paintings, cut-outs, banners, neons and placards demonstrate his love of suburbia and its vernacular, popular music and its attendant culture, printing, design and advertising, sport and youth culture. His works define not only the look of the world in which he lives, but the accent and humour of its language and how signs can articulate its culture and history. These signs are sometimes loud and boisterous but never offensively so. They have a beauty about them that encourages belief.
I wonder and I cross my fingers that some of these loud and suburban moments from Jon's Footscray are part of what is going to be re-transcribed into the historic halls of the Royal Exhibition Building. For me, that would be perfect imperfection.
Jon Campbell's secret commission will be unveiled at Melbourne Art Fair. Get yourself to the fancy
Vernissage to be one of the first to see this commission plus work by over 900 other artists.
In the meantime, enjoy these snippets from Jon's studio in our gallery here.
4 – 8 August 2010
Royal Exhibition Building
Carlton Gardens
Melbourne