Ornamental Perversion

Ornamental Perversion

By Sharne Wolff

Official Website

Laced with Freud, saturated with surrealism and rich in Rococo Tim Schultz’s latest exhibition is titled Ornamental Perversion. The show continues the artist’s long foray into these themes. Described as “excursions in psychoanalytic structure buried within a labyrinth visual frame”, five sexually suggestive oil paintings are accompanied by two elegantly erotic sculptures in ceramic and enamel.

With an emphasis on the ornamental the appearance of architect Hector Guimard heralds the additional influence of the Art Nouveau. Housed in decadent frames, Schultz’s fantastical figures exaggerate themselves in liquid fashion and morph before our eyes. Visited by scatterings of Salvador Dali’s hallmark symbols – eggs, the melting clock and the all-knowing eye – and drawing heavily on the writings of the well-known surrealist, Schultz’s painting takes us to the ‘weirdish wild spaces’ of the unconscious. Freud’s theories abound. ‘Mad King’ Ludwig (II of Bavaria) is pictured standing one breast-popping in a naughty high-heeled boot, while in Guimard-Schlupfyr milk spouts from the breast of a shadowed blob-headed figure in vampy blue/red stocking and garter. Named after the architect famous for the gorgeous entrances to the Paris Metro, Guimard the blob holds by its lead a four-legged creature (Schlupfyr) whose head doubles as a phallus. You get the picture.

The Commercial Gallery, Redfern
Pic: Tim Schultz, Ornamental Perversion, 2014 [installation view].
Courtesy the artist and The Commercial Gallery, Sydney (Photo: Jessica Maurer)