ROBIN RHODE

By Kathryn Smith for Arthttrob

For this self proclaimed "working-class bushie artist", the first two years of art school were living hell - until he read an article in Frieze magazine featuring the work of Kendell Geers, Stephen Hobbs and Wayne Barker. Feeling a true kinship with Geers' aesthetic terrorism, and recognising the work to be part of his life experience to a point where he felt he 'owned' the work mentioned in the piece, it became Rhode's desire to be Shakespeare's "pregnant enemy". Rhode believes art has a definite practical function and educational potential, which is partly the reason why he gives his art what he calls "real life form". He aspires to be entertaining and for his audience to be judgmental. Self-deprecating and very self-aware, Rhode has invented a word and life philosophy that he believes should be consciously applied at least once a day:

Selfinkoozament adj. having a proper sense of one's own dignity and integrity; being selfinkoozaful, or selfinkoozaing ('Kooza' derives from a Venda word meaning support) In his performance work, he blurs the usually clear-cut boundaries between illusion and reality by attempting to interact three dimensionally with a two-dimensional drawing, playing on the modernist notion of the artist as 'creative genius'. Although they inherit all the conventional qualities of drawing (charcoal on white ground) these drawings are made to appear as 'fictitious' as possible, creating an intense awareness that no matter how great the genius, a representation remains just that. All his works thus far are a prequel of things to come - "like Star Wars" he says. (MORE...)