Neil Haddon
Migratory Aesthetics: Waymarking / Painting / Undertow
Bett Gallery
2 August - 24 August 2024
In this exhibition, the artist delves into his personal biography, exploring the legacy of his migration to lutruwita/Tasmania and encounters with artworks that have marked his journey from the UK, through Spain and New York, to Tasmania.
His paintings intertwine threads from a painting by Paul Gauguin, a landscape by John Glover, engravings by Gustave Doré, snippets of text by H.G. Wells, and references to early colonial figure John Kelly, along with anecdotes from his life in the UK and Tasmania.
Migration is a complex phenomenon involving negotiations of identity, belonging, and spatial dynamics. Haddon's artwork exemplifies migratory experiences, merging past and present temporalities to create a poignant manifestation of displacement and settlement.
His technique spans hard-edged abstraction to loose expression, finely rendered figurative detail to bold text, utilizing a variety of painterly applications and materials.
Haddon's paintings offer insights into migratory experiences and the histories of lutruwita/Tasmania, depicting a place still in formation, whose geographies and views are yet to be fully discovered.