In Domestik Fantastik artist, Tim Craker, created furniture that misbehaved, champagne bottles that became tables and pedestals, plastic bread-tags arranged themselves on the wall, egg-cups proliferated and agglomerated, and an outsize collection of small white jugs vied for dominance. At WAS Gallery second-hand white crockery combined in unexpected ways, having escaped the dish rack and kitchen cupboards, forming columns and giant virus particles while completely denying its original function. The recycling bin provided materials for gridded wall-works that decried consumer waste and excess, while soothing the eye and mind – referencing fish scales, roof tiles, Islamic prayer screens, handkerchiefs and bees on the comb.
“My work begins as a response to the materials that I find and collect. The discards of modern life such as everyday product packaging and low-cost op-shop finds such as crockery and even furniture are the prompts for these works. The materials speak of the profligacy of our society that creates, at great cost – both economic and environmental – such highly processed and refined materials and objects, only to discard them as waste.
Once I’ve amassed collections of these materials, I sit back in my studio and – over many months – listen to what they say, see how they might be combined and experiment with their forms. The works are informed by my pervasive and enduring interest in pattern, symmetry and the geometry of the Platonic solids – as well as a desire to subvert the materials’ intended function, to provoke some surprise, inject some levity and see what else they can do”.
