Matthew Bethune

The Masquerade of Life

Pencil Drawing on Paper

42 x 30 cm (approx.)

The artwork forces viewers into the perspective of an intruder within the figure’s metaphysical safe space. Where what should be private and sheltered: is dark, colorless and violated. The viewer looks in on the figure from a slightly perverse angle, in the mirror she cannot see herself but a figure with a camera for a face, showing how societal scrutiny of her body has invaded even the most secluded parts of her mind. The camera leads the viewer to separate the mirror figure from any one person but instead as a manifestation of society.

 The Masquerade of Self

Oil paint on Wooden Board

90 x 59 x 1 cm (approx.)

Sister to the Drawing, this artwork allows the viewer into the private metaphysical world of the figure; the safe space they retreat to when life gets too hard. By placing the face in the snow and leaving the figure faceless, viewers are taken into the mind of a person who feels they lack any real identity or self, wearing different masks for different circumstances. In the process of which they have lost any definite sense of self. Leaving even their most private safe space cold and rejecting.

 Rot

Installation Chicken egg in resin, printed poem and found objects: table, linen cloth, plinth, candle stick, candles, fresh roses, glass vase

116 x 56 x 58 cm (approx.)

A satirical take on the idiom they’re a rotten egg the piece plays with how people can deify the dead; forgetting their flaws or wrongdoings, as one mustn’t speak ill of the dead. Presenting a preserved rotten egg upon a shrine inspired by home memorials, a stark contrast is created. This is intended to lead the viewer to take a judgmental perspective on those who deified this egg. My own poem that sits beneath the egg actively directs the viewer to this position through the words of an ambivalent speaker.

 Filtered Flower

Series of 1 photograph, 4 Digital edited Photographs, 1 Lino-cut Print

Overall size: 153 x 31 cm (approx.)

In this artwork the filtered perspectives people have on the natural world are explored. When presented with a simple case, a lily, there are various ways people may see it:

a vibrant appreciation of nature’s beauty – ignorant of its woes. Or those who see only the opposite; an aphid infestation threatening to destroy nature’s beauty – a view that fails to actually see said splendor. Some people move through nature perceiving only select focal points, greying out details deemed superfluous. Leading to a final view from people who choose not to see nature at all, perceiving solely the outlines and shapes of useful items.

 Two Truths on Flame

Series of three Pyrography & oil paint on cut wood

Each 18 x 28 x 28 cm (approx.)

A response to the 2020 Australian bushfires this artwork explores conflicting but equally accurate perspectives on a bushfire scene. The middle log represents the reality of burnt land, left ashen and bare, the process of pyrography reflects the charred environment. The logs to either side represent two perspectives when looking at a burnt landscape. One sees only the past, the flame and scorch; the other sees the future as new life takes roots from the nutrient soil left over. Both are correct observations but completely oppose each other, showing both the extremity of human perspective and the ignorance; as neither appreciate reality as it is now, only the future and past. 

Flammable by nature

Sculpture with Acrylic paint on found wood (Bark)

48 x 15 x 15 cm (approx.)

This artwork, crafted from the same piece of native Australian wood as its sister, explores the perspective on bushfires being part of the natural fragility of bushland in the modern era. Depicting a forest scene with central focal points of a koala and winding river the unique “canvas” (an internally rotten branch) will fall apart as time progresses, illustrating the perspective that Australian bushland is on the verge of destruction. Each fire leaving neither the land nor animals time to recover. One day, much like the piece itself, it will be unrecognizable.