William Mackinnon: Paintings Conceived While Driving

After receiving the 2008 Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship, artist William MacKinnon spent three months driving from the cosmopolitan city of Melbourne to the remote Fitzroy crossing of the Kimberley region, in northern Australia.  MacKinnon spent two months in residency at the Mangkaja Arts in Fitzroy Crossing, working with the local high-school students and taking a bush trip with the Martu people. MacKinnon has created a captivating body of work which communicates his experiences of the driving and the land;

To William, the Kimberley is an irreducible place where the ancient and contemporary co-exist, as does humour and tragedy. It is a heady mix of sublime vistas, burnt out Toyotas, ancient rock art, football, hip-hop, country music, drugs, magic and spiritualism.

William’s paintings stem from the intersection between reality and imagination: what he physically perceives and what he concocts in his mind. For many years, the car has changed the way that William sees the world, integrated into his life as the Internet is for many others. This body of work has been influenced by his road trip to the Kimberley and his experience there. But ultimately this is an exhibition about the possibilities of painting.

The motion of a vehicle never fails to stimulate William’s mind. For the artist, the movement, the soundtrack, the windscreen is all cinematic. His own road movie unfolds. To William, there is nothing quite like driving alone at night in the rain. Heading somewhere, leaving somewhere, perpetually cast in a liminal contemplative space.

The exhibition opens Friday October 2nd at Utopian Slumps, 5/25 Easey St Collingwood, Victoria.