The Australian Inquisition
Steaphan Paton

Steaphan Paton’s practice has garnered much critical attention in recent years for his interrogation of governmental forms of control that entrench and amplify the impacts of colonialism, as well as his interest in resurging traditional modes and practices of cultural production. For his solo presentation at Gertrude Glasshouse, Paton continued his practice of entwining media to create environments that offer glimpse of the journey between process and outcome, presenting through an environment of sculpture and multi-channel video. The Australian Inquisition utilised heavyweight steel piping of the kind used in major water or oil distribution as sculptural armatures from which patternised shield-like elements have been extracted. Removed of their functionality to transport resources, the pipes mimic the forms of barks traditionally used in the production of shields, while also resembling some kind of foreign body archeologically excavated and presented as an obscure object of indiscernible origin and function.  Looking upon these metallic barks or recently unearthed apparatus, a cinematic journey though landscape unfolds, offering both a visualistic sense of flow and momentum, as well as a contextual cue of historical cultural trajectory.
 
Steaphan Paton (Gunai and Monero Peoples, Gippsland / South East New South Wales) lives and works in Melbourne. Selected recent solo exhibitions include Gunailand, Gippsland Art Gallery, Victoria (2018); My Jindabyne II, c3 Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne (2018); Muraskin, Tristian Koenig, Melbourne (2017); Contrecoup, COMA Gallery, Sydney (2017); Doublethink, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne (2016): Faunaface, Space Space Gallery, Tokyo (2015); and Boorun’s Canoe (with Cam Cope), Birrarung Gallery, Bunjilaka, Melbourne Museum (2015). Selected recent group exhibitions include Jack’s Reloaded: Material as Memory, Jack’s Magazine, Melbourne (2019); Gertrude Studios 2018, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne (2018), Weapons for the Soldier, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre, Sydney (2018); Colony: Frontier Wars, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2018); Sovereignty, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2016); Murruwaygu, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2015); Moving Backwards into the Future, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2015); Primavera 2015,  Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; and Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2013).