The work: Damian Bisogni, Message to my Girl, 2022. Acrylic on board, 90 x 60cm. Courtesy: the artist.
“So I’ll sing it to the world, this simple message to my girl” – crooned Rock Band Split Enz in the early 1980s, with little idea how quickly communication would soon change. Damian Bisogni’s work Message to my Girl uses semi-abstraction and heavy layering in order to interrogate modern forms of communication, which sits well within a practice that is based on deeply worked canvases combined with personal introspection. Each of Bisogni’s pieces begin with the rapid application of primary colours, and slowly semi-representational imagery begins to reveal itself through the action of emotive mark-making. Sometimes the artist will layer works one upon the other, previous thoughts and iterations swept up within textural passages of paint. In this piece, the form of a phone cord emerged, passing from one side of the board to the other. Though no longer a staple in many homes, it is a recognisable item from the technological past, and its disappearance signalled one of the greatest changes to society’s approach to long-distance communication. In Bisogni’s work however, the line between two individuals is unbroken, still tethered to a sense of place and to each other. It is simpler, but no less vibrant.