exhibition

SOS is a new body of work from Australian artist, Dscreet. The well-toured owl lover previously painted extensively in London, as part of the infamous Burning candy Crew, a collective that included artists such as Cept, Pegs, Sweet Toof, Cyclops, Tek33, and occasionally SickBoy. Now repatriated in his home country and forced to spend hours alone during Melbourne’s draconian lockdown, drunkenly trawling Tinder, Dscreet finally put down his phone and picked up a paintbrush, putting the many bottles of booze he’d drained to better use. This is the result.
SOS – Dscreet‘I spent a lot of time in isolation walking around alone, first depressed, then I found a way tolook at things differently.’‘The world was upside down so it was time to discover new places to keep my mindoccupied. To find new uses for the detritus in my brain and on the streets. This city becamea strange jail with one hour of outdoor time to breathe, no painting and no surfing allowed,few outlets for anyone like me who funnels freedom into my art. I felt like we were allsharing a special kind of crazy. At first I began to go a little insane, listening to the media,trying to make sense of it all, trying to deny my relative misery, but there were a lot ofconflicting stories coming out, no-one really knew what was going on. I meditated, didyoga, breathwork, exercise and then drank a lot of alcohol. I felt the same conflicting storyin myself, trying to stay healthy and positive then destroying the good work with the polaropposite force. Somehow a balance evolved, staring into the empty bottles, I decided toput them to good use and decorate them with the profound lyrics of those who have beendrunk and isolated before me, after all, many of us creative types spend even the mostnormal times in isolation, sometimes confused and conflicted. Sometimes there’s thosemoments of clarity at the end of a cycle.’‘In memoriam to my personal journey, through the schizophrenic stasis of the world, eachof these painted bottles represents a piece of my creative therapy and struggle throughlockdown. The other pieces represent found objects and prose I’ve salvaged from personalhikes through the streets and wilderness and songlists. The surfboard is a monument tothose opposing forces that keep clashing in the media and in our minds, ready to flowbackwards or forwards, I reached an acceptance that nothing can be taken for grantedanymore and nothing is absolute. I’m happy to be sober and surfing and painting again.’– DSCREETView the full catalogue here.COLLECTOR ENQUIRIES: [email protected]@backwoods.gallery@dscreetsheet
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