Desires

By Andrew Frost

The only difference between dream and reality is that you usually know when you’re awake. But can the same be said for dreaming, and all those uncertain states between slumber and wakefulness? Jack Condon’s immaculate, large-scale photographs depict things that look as though they might be happening, yet they have the hallucinatory uncertainty of a half remembered dream.

Condon’s debut solo show Desires takes the influence of Gregory Crewdson and Jeff Wall, the masters of the photo-narrative genre, and adds a distinctive Australian twist; these are places and locations straight out of the familiar Neighbours universe but darkened and shadowed with a palpable psychological intensity.

Condon’s works such as Card Tower has the air of a staged ‘moment’ complete with theatrical lighting, but where most photo artists would attempt to recreate the verisimilitude of cinema, Condon leaves the light stand in shot. It’s all unsettling reminiscent of Philip K Dick’s oft repeated fear that reality would one day be revealed to be not much more than a stage set, but in Condon’s images its more an elaborate Kaufman-esque staging of the unconscious. Freaked out yet? You should be.

Until September 22

Firstdraft Gallery, Surry Hills.

www.firstdraftgallery.com