A frozen performance muddled in history. A dramatic ice- age. A stage for all the lost characters. A circus for children. A pantomime for adults. A ceremony for freaks.

David Noonan’s recent exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery creates a sinister and magical world shaded with heavy eye makeup, knowing stares and childish curiosity. His subjects are plucked from a time machine and are familiar from dreams. All of them players in our memory, once haunting or guiding us to fantastical places.

There is a wonderful balance of silence and drama when walking into the main space. Erected are five awkwardly shaped, isolated moments, constructed out of birch plywood. Greeting you is an overwhelmingly tall magician- like character. His demeanour is draped in an eerie humour and topped with ambiguity. Wandering on you feel he may skulk behind and trick you into entering one of Noonan’s overcast moments.


Untitled, 2009


Untitled, 2009 
(Detail)

Using grey scale and heavy shadow Noonan distorts the situation in each image. He provokes the audience to create a personal narrative and interact with the characters. Beware of the deflating tent, hiding children and ghostly duck heads, all of them alive, breathing and waiting for the right moment to transform.

Each construction has a semi-permanent, unpredictable power - they can travel, connect, reconfigure and break away. Noonan directs the space to feel as if you are sneaking around back stage or acting in a scene that could rewrite itself at any moment.


Untitled, 2011


Untitled, 2011

I found the images hanging on the walls disconcerting. Noonan captures his subjects in moments of contemplation, their black eyes and pursed lips trapped behind collaged bars. A silence inhabits each image but there is also an acute awareness that beams from each of the subject’s gaze. Conversation exists between the five constructions and the hanging screen prints. Together they perform an unknown play from an unknown time.

David Noonan’s time warped world provokes his audience to chat with each character, script a part for them in history and become lost in impulsive scene making. It is a stirring experience layered with wit, humour and a playful darkness.

By Anna Shapiro

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