International Smooth

Circa 1980
Screen print with textured paper and silver pigment
Triptych: Left and right panels 33 x 60 centimeters, centre panel 64 x 60 centimeters
Collection National Gallery of Australia

International Smooth deliberately invokes the classic alterpiece of a central panel showing a biblical scene flanked by smaller wing panels which generally depicted images of the pious. However, the only religion referenced by this print is the modern insistence on style and instead of saints the wing panels show a man casually inspecting the furnishings and a woman who is intently scrutinising a cabinet.

The room the couple inhabit is, despite their search for good taste, definitely not glamourous; the purple floor covering, the fake leather chairs (which are actually printed on leather textured paper) and the metal and glass coffee table may have been fleetingly fashionable in the early nineteen-eighties disco culture.

The figures were photographically enlarged from tiny dry transfer illustrations. The intention was to employ the low resolution distortions that resulted to match tonal dropout qualities of the furniture to generate a rather crude lo-fi aesthetic.

Backgound of the screen prints 1977-1981