The Samstag Alumni
The 2001 Anne & Gordon Samstag
International Visual Arts Scholarships
Christine Collins | Shaun Gladwell | Glenys Hodgeman | Anne Kay | Fassih Keiso | Linda Marrinon | Archie Moore | Rea | John Spiteri | Paul White
In the work of John Spiteri painting is extended through the medium of video and the logic of installation. His paintings exist in their own right: scenes and objects drawn in outline with a cartoon-like simplicity, and filled in with a limited palette of saturated colours. But through the use of video he develops their narrative impulse.
In Nightlife the camera tracks through the painting, now like a stage-set, while the soundtrack provides dialogue between unseen characters. The camera pans an empty streetscape stopping at a lit window, the soundtrack repeats a repertoire of inconclusive conversations between a central protagonist and the people he meets. Installed in the front window of 200 Gertrude Street, the viewer attracted by the lighted window is placed in the same position as the protagonist in the video - drawn in as they pass by, tempted into engagement, breaking off, going home. In this way Spiteri sets up an interaction between the fictive space of representation and the real space of the viewer, blurring the boundary between them.
Similarly, in Police Line-up, the viewer is implicated in - caught watching - the line-up of suspects. Spiteri's work is slow-acting and laconic, with a deadpan, wry humour that reels the viewer in.
Robyn McKenzie
From her Samstag catalogue essay
Art and Research
| John Spiteri Born 1967, Camperdown, New South Wales |
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| 2001 | Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship Associate Research Student, Goldsmiths College, London, UK |
| 1999 | Master of Fine Art, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney |
| 1996 | Associate Research Student, Goldsmiths College, London |
| 1994 | Post Graduate Study (Painting), College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney |
| 1989 | Bachelor of Eductation (Art), College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney |
Nightlife 1998
installation,
200 Gertrude Street
© the artist
Police Line-up 1999
installation of video, acrylic paint on wall
165 x 80 cm
© the artist