“Year of the Savage”
Vivian Cooper Smith
19 Apr → 11 May 2013

Year of the Savage is the result of a year on the margins, out of step and underground. A year when all was broken and damaged, the whole became fragment, the self became savage and things of value fell away. The result? A new me – a bringing together of what was, is and will be – mutated, muddled and chain free.

Year of the Savage is an installation of image fragments: part film noir, part Nietzschian anti morality tirade, and part monster mash.

Vivian Cooper Smith is the son of missionaries and spent time in New Zealand, Bangladesh and India before entering Australian society in Perth. After completing an Honours degree in Fine Arts he moved to Melbourne where he works as a photographer and graphic designer. His art practice began with installation, sound, performance and text before finding its voice in photography. In recent years his work has used the materiality of the photograph and in particular the re-photographed photograph to investigate the cultivation of self and place within an Australian context. His work has been exhibited widely across Australia, including recent shows at Galerie Pom Pom, Sydney, Wollongong City Gallery and St Heliers Street Gallery, Melbourne.