Morgan Jones at the opening night of his and fellow artist Alfred Liu’s latest exhibition, The ‘Burbs at the Brunswick Art Space. Photo: Rachael Hocking
Emerging Melbourne artist Morgan Jones presents snapshots of the northern suburbs and a “quintessential Australia” in his illustrations.
Last Friday night the Brunswick Art Space celebrated the opening night of his and fellow artist Alfred Liu’s latest exhibition, The ‘Burbs.
The 51 hand-drawn illustrations by Jones reference his home suburb of Brunswick and the familiarity of urban landscapes.
“It’s like I have a strong awareness of those … Australian things that pop up here just cause I’ve been living with them my entire life,” he told City Journal.
“The stores are still here from when I was two or three … I find it easy to sync into the environment here and work naturally.”
He heads off on a humorous tangent about a South Yarra laundrette called Bonza Wash and how keen he is to draw it.
“I think that’s why I draw the Australian landscape, because I don’t know what … is particularly drawing me to it, so I want to keep on doing it and find out why it is that we have things called Bonza Wash.”
While there is comfort, Jones says, in illustrating a world of concrete paths, ageing shopfronts and homely kitchens, it is his strong attraction to the ideas and issues of architecture that allows him to interpret these spaces.
“I’m really interested in how space and environments influence behaviour and movement and just how we act in everyday life. And vice versa: how what we do can influence the space. And so I guess that’s what architecture is. Designing spaces to initiate or control behaviour.”
A passion for photography helps Jones look at the world around him through the lens of a camera. He says his works aim to blur the lines between photography and drawing.
“I’m kind of looking at everyday photography and the idea of just constantly taking photos to document everyday life in this (exhibition) by trying to make these look like photos.”
Perhaps the most impressive feat of the body of work Jones has been producing since March is the dynamic way it can be exhibited.
Jones suggests that he is now close to 400 illustrations that can be shown in different combinations and layouts to produce different meaning and initiate different kinds of discussion.
“I’m mainly talking about … architecture and place tonight. I could talk about behaviour in relation to architecture or purely about Australian identity or I could go down another path and look purely at abstraction.”
For a young artist learning his craft, exhibiting a select few of his illustrations is a small stepping stone in a project he has found to be immensely rewarding and seemingly endless in its possibilities.
“I’ve lucked out with this project. I’ve found something that I’m happy to work on constantly everyday and can’t see an ending, which is a great feeling.”
The ‘Burbs is being shown alongside exhibitions by Wendy Busch and Frau Skill at the Brunswick Art space until Sunday August 31.
