The work: Inga Fillary, What’s the Matter, 2021 (detail). Mixed media, 250 x 250 x 250cm. Courtesy: the artist.
For New Zealand-based artist Inga Fillary, the medium is the message. In her latest work, What’s the Matter, Fillary asks us to explore the longevity of materials and, in a way, humanity. “Wrecked, burnt and decaying manufactured materials carry qualities of obsolescence,” she says. “They are freed from functionality and the empty promises of human technology and instead suggest the possibility of a dark vitality propelling us forward.” With an expanded painting practice, Fillary explores the deeper meaning of man-made materials in an attempt to categorise them in a system of hierarchy. In doing so, the materials she draws attention to become a mirror reflecting and levelling perceived hierarchies between human and object. In her work, the burdens of humankind upon the earth are exposed and critiqued. In 2020, Fillary graduated with a Master of Fine Arts with Honours from Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland.