Ham Darroch paints Counter Attack – timelapse film

ANU Alumni and Canberra based artist Ham Darroch opened the Drill Hall’s 2020 exhibition program with a dynamic ensemble of colour, geometry and object-based form. In his paintings and object based sculptures Darroch investigates the visual tradition of hard edge abstraction of the 1960’s and 70’s. His works evoke a strong carry over of the enigmatic conceptualism of Marcel Duchamp and he makes wide ranging references to other works of Australian and non-Australian modern and pre-modern artists.

Darroch’s sculptural work re-conceptualises retired everyday objects by over-painting them with two-dimensional coloured geometric configurations. The wall-based sculptures co-inhabit a place of remembered functionality and abstract pictorial representation. In the sixth iteration of his recent site-specific, ephemeral wall paintings Darroch uses Uccello’s historic triptych The Battle of San Romano as a compositional scaffold, painting directly onto the western wall of the gallery. Inhabiting the field of the painting his rhythmic geometries create a narrative of tensions between colour, edges, and negative space