What started as bored doodling on public transport to pass time turned into a full blown obsession for Newcastle artist Travjamjar, the fruits of which have now been realised in the launch of his first solo exhibition ‘Language of the Mad’. Hosted at The Wedge Gallery located in Kinokuniya (The Galleries, Sydney CBD) concluding Monday, the exhibition brings together elements of the bizarre, placing the gory and twisted world thriving in its creator’s psyche within close reach.
With over fifty pieces of art including four large colour paintings, a myriad of mostly black and white smaller sketches and three illustrated replicas of helmets worn by Darth Vader, Iron Man and Boba Fett, every piece of art is confronting yet absorbing in its own right. Casually thrown in Disney caricatures, elegant dragons, and cuddly teddies blend in almost seamlessly beside blood soaked skulls, mangled limbs and beast-human hybrids in a morbidly comical way.
Highlights include two collaborative efforts, ‘Light of Hope’ with Sha’an D’Anthes and ‘Rabbit Wars’ with Emylse Trujillo. Both drawings outdo themselves in the level of detail, shading and quirky characters portrayed. Other vibrantly coloured subjects draw the eye and the engaging image of a sub human in a deer suit, bursting out of a pink coloured alien’s head in ‘My Friends’, proves hard to walk away from. In the end it’s the helmets that steal the show, an obvious crowd favourite judging by the number of unauthorised snaps and excited exclamations of ‘I want one of these!’
Other worldly, at times sarcastic, mostly maniacal and cheekily littered with random pop culture references, ‘Language of the Mad’ is definitely an intriguing jaunt into the unknown. Whether the dark and disturbing is your thing or not, this exhibition will definitely leave you with a slight chuckle in your throat and maybe some strange thoughts of your own.
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