“The Essay”
Steven Rendall and Bryan Spier
10 Oct → 1 Nov 2008

We hate the city. We want to drown its incessant clamour with a noise of our own. We want to feed its horror back to it until it decays into a high-pitched squeal. How can we paint the perverse iconography needed to decry the city’s ever-shifting allegiances? How can we pen a protest anthem when the beat of the city is too frenetic to dance to, yet too slow for mortal perception? We have to seed our protest into the vernacular of future generations so they can continue our work after we have disbanded. What is needed is a medium with which we can unblinkingly catalogue the revulsion that chokes us as we scramble from the din of urban life.

The Essay follows on from Rendall & Spier’s exhibition The Red Lion that commented on the fraught relationship between modern art, real estate and alcohol.

Steven Rendall and Bryan Spier have individually presented solo projects as well as participating in numerous group exhibitions. They have collaborated on a number of projects since 2003 which have been exhibited throughout Melbourne as well as in Canberra.