In his latest video work at Peloton Gallery, Dani Marti’s more familiar subjects are absent. Against Day is a portrait of Tarcoola, a town that was established at the turn of the 20th Century when gold was discovered in the local area. Marti went camping there recently after a stint in New York working on a major art project and literally stumbled across what is now just a set of abandoned buildings – a readymade film set for an artist gifted with the irresistible combination of a painter’s eye and filmic style that’s suggestive of Gummodirector, Harmony Korine.

Like his other work – portraits of men describing themselves and their personal lives in ways that reveal how our identities are brought into being through the very performance of them – there’s no elaborate narrative or essential truth to be rescued among the empty rooms and broken furniture; Marti’s aim is to create a constructed reality through an abstracted approach to these images. This forgotten town really captured Marti’s attention and whatever captures his is certainly worth ours, particularly when he turns it into one of his compelling works of art.

Until September 8
Peloton Gallery, Surry Hills.
Pic: The artist & Breenspace, Sydney.

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