Spotswood & Surrounds

​Andrew Wurster's vision of Spotswood and the Western suburbs is a super-flat, empty and sometimes desolate series of landscapes devoid of human presence.  Shop signs, abandoned vans and a pastel, creamy palette of blues, greens and soft contrast hues, create a version of Spotswood and surrounds which reference Jeffrey Smart paintings, Ward Robert's photographs and an almost Google Street View happy snap aesthetic. Two Bird's Brewing exhibition space is intimate and versatile, with Wurster able to exhibit a large amount of nicely sized and beautifully matte-printed images without the exhibition being overwhelming, or empty.  There is a sort of dystopia, or detached air about this body of Wurster's work, which could be read as a critique of these suburbs. By intentionally leaving figures absent from the landscapes, our focus becomes about scale (and the push and pull of scale), decoration (and the elements of letters, license plates and council bins) and the composition of walls, trees and textures in our everyday lives. Are the works uniquely representative of the area? Not particularly, but perhaps that might be the point.  Make the trip out to Spotswood to visit Two Bird's and make sure you try the beer.