Ross Taylor
Drifting towards, with moony intent, 2023-2024
Graphite and charcoal on paper
55 x 45 cm
21 5/8 x 17 3/4 in.
21 5/8 x 17 3/4 in.
Unique
Photo: Rob Harris. Courtesy of the artist and Brooke Benington
The drawing titled Drifting towards, with moony intent features a figure that hints at aristocratic iconography, which we can see in the historic hairstyle and the crown. Taylor often references...
The drawing titled Drifting towards, with moony intent features a figure that hints at aristocratic iconography, which we can see in the historic hairstyle and the crown. Taylor often references characters from classic literature and history, relics of a solid and reassuring past which are now adrift in the uncanny pastiche he creates. The “moony intent” in the title suggests a dreamy, wandering quality to the character’s life as if existing on a different plane of reality. The character defies clear definition, an entity both connected to the other “associates” yet isolated in its idiosyncratic loneliness. The need for hiding behind prosthetics such as double eyes, a wig, and a spotty nose, is an absurd take on the suburban middle-class upbringing attitude, in which one accumulates external additions as an escapist strategy for hiding and finding temporary relief from the trivial mundanity of life.