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GLENN LOCKLEE

I am 3rd generation Australian Chinese. My father and his father were furniture manufacturers establishing a factory in predepression Sydney. This was apparently a common occupation adopted by Chinese immigrants. My visual language stems from the industrial environment I spent so many formative years playing in. This is evident not just in the subject of my painting but also the poetic architecture of the work. The sparse geometric construction and tertiary colours play off against the expressionist rendering of surface and portrayal of light.

My memory of the culture of industrial manufacture was the five day working week and weekends at home mowing lawns and painting houses. Christmas came and the factory would close for a month and you would camp at the same caravan park up the coast each year. Growing up in the South Western suburbs of Sydney, this was a typical working class ritual.

My work observes two societal phenomena: one is the increasing redundancy of small business and domestic manufacture and the other is the proliferation of high rise, high density living as house and land ownership becomes increasingly unattainable. As a result of corporate retail and globalisation we have seen the fabric of this lifestyle give way to material aspiration and human disconnect.

The burgeoning demand for imported commodities has governments and corporations scrambling to claim new tracts of riverside land for possible port sites. This is a current issue that threatens Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and its pristine surroundings.

My paintings are not political nor carry an agenda of protest. They stand as silent witnesses to change; evocative peripheral images that conjure up subliminal memories.

Casula Powerhouse Exhibitions