Mike SINGE

born 1970, Perth, Western Australia
lives and works Perth, Western Australia

Man About Town is part of a body of artworks by Mike Singe that recreate everyday objects made solely from the pages of Perth street directories. While these objects represent the real thing, in this case, a pair of men’s trousers, a belt, a shirt and a tie, their function has been denied by the nature of the paper construction.  This new function allows for a more humorous view to be taken on a subject, in this case the Perth landscape. Do the paper clothes in Man about Town, represent a suburban property tycoon?
 
Mike Singe hints that this is perhaps a metaphor for a city’s endless desire to move further out into the vast landscape, even though it may not have the appropriate means to do so. Singe also comments that we may not know how far down the development highway we have travelled, but more importantly he questions where would be the best place for us to stop. Maybe this explains why the artwork is sealed within a museum style box-frame as though Singe wishes the development of Perth’s endless urban sprawl were a thing of the past we could look back at and learn from.

Other selected artwork acquisitions