Keepsake, 2013, Michael Peck
Oil on linen, 152cm x 152cm
Provenance: Metro Gallery, Melbourne
Michael Peck was born in Melbourne, Australia, and received a BFA from Monash University in 2000. His artistic practice is concerned with the sensation of disorientation and dislocation. Exploring loss of cultural identity, his work particularly focuses on the effects within minority groups and individuals existing on the fringe who are challenged to assimilate within the larger community. The scenes in his paintings are quiet. He aims to draw participants in and make them pause. He emphasises that our population is overwhelmed by mass-culture composed from the interaction and provide a space for the individual.
Keepsake was produced by Michael Peck as part of his Love & Fear collection in 2013. The collection was developed during a three year residency at Birrarung House and represents the beginning of a new body of work. Peck costumes his figures in objects of practical, and symbolic significance, often representing the basic necessities of primal life. While the objects are recognisable, the traditions are invented and unrelated to the modern world as we know it (1).