ita | eng
Ash Keating debuted in 2004 in Melbourne, Australia. His works have travelled the world, from Chile to Korea, Japan, Indonesia and New Zealand, establishing him in the contemporary art scene.
The Australian artist began painting when he was a boy discovering his passion for art, and thanks to perseverance and hard work it has gradually become his profession.
Now, with his handkerchief around the mouth, sunglasses and cap covered in colours, he can make room for all his inspiration, “I make a type of art that has the ability to send an idea of positivity to anyone who looks at it.”
Visualizza questo post su Instagram
What’s unique about his art? The use of fire extinguishers filled with colours, capable of spraying a mixture of colourful paints and water. A technique that allows a fast colouring of large surfaces, everything is then made more interesting by gravity that allows the colours to drip.
These murals become enormous palettes on which to experiment with colour: the work isn’t born of a preset scheme, it is created as the colours merge on the wall,
Every time I start to position colour in some places, I can figure out where the colours will go in relation to that” | Ash Keating
Visualizza questo post su Instagram
For some murals the artist also uses water to create a sense of melting and dripping. In other he decides not to go beyond his physical height and to not complete the “splashes”: a way to stimulate the imagination of the viewer, to make them “jump” over the edge of the mural and see beyond, completing the image with their own sensitivity.
Keating’s work is a way to give colour to the grey areas of the city, like with Gravity System Response (2018) when the artist received the commission to fill a 90m wall in a tunnel behind the railroad in Sydney as part of a project dedicated to raising awareness on mental health issues.
The colours used are to give an impression of inner richness, made of light games and angles, each corner is different from the other, allowing the viewer to take a break from the frenzy of everyday life and enjoy the beauty of the murals.
Visualizza questo post su Instagram
Ash Keating also participated in a performance in collaboration with an art gallery, Escape from tag mountain (2008) in which he presented a collection of clothing label scraps and thread rolls spread across the backstreets of a small industrial area in Seoul.
An entirely biographical work dedicated to being born in world devoted to consumerism and thoughtless waste. Once again contemporary art comes off the walls and out of the rooms of museums to occupy the grey spaces of cities, and conveys a simple message: abandon the consumerism to which we are accustomed to and try to enjoy the simplicity, of which we often forget.
Find out more on the artist’s official website, or follow him on Instagram: @ash_keating.
Translated by Ludovica Sarti
Read more Curious Facts on ZìrArtmag
