Last night, Michael Thacker shared seven huge paintings of transformers, the culmination of three and a half years of work, with a large crowd at the Woolloongabba SubStation.
A boat builder by trade, Michael has applied his creative skills in painting this series.
My favourite was “City of Beaudesert”, the name of the train arriving at South Bank station to disperse “official” artists to the Griffith College of Art.
Michael’s view of Beaudesert as a city rather than as a country town stopped me in my tracks. He accepts the place of robots in our lives, acknowledging that calls to taxis are answered by bots, rather than by people with whom one establishes a relationship. He notices that people are disappearing from our ordinary economic lives. That vision, and others communicated through these paintings, fascinate.
He sees tumbleweed robots on Mars, the subject of his next series.
Woolloongabba Substation
45 Logan Road, Woolloongabba
Kerry McGovern
