The Bayside Centre, Frankston
2009
Inkjet on watercolour paper
70 x 41 centimeters
A shopping mall is an unlikely choice of subject matter for this series but the choice needs to be seen in terms of my response to a move away from the inner city -- where strip shops are the norm -- to the city's coastal fringe where some shopping items are only available in a mall. I don't particularly like these places but that doesn't preclude me from examining their aesthetics.
These enclosed spaces where natural light has largely been banished in favour of fluorescent lighting and the acres of polished tiles present a totally artificial environment. Fittingly, the man depicted here reaches for a mass produced product consisting mainly of either sweetened water or milk while in the background three headless mannequins stand in mute testament to to this citadel of commerce.