5. Paul O'Connor - I Believe In You, 2024 - Porcelain, glaze, tacks, black box frame with non-reflective glass - 32x24x6cm framed

This artwork is from Paul O'Connor's solo exhibition EXTINCT/IMAGINED, presented at Becker Minty Hobart.

Growing up in the seaside town of Waikiki, Western Australia, Paul O’Connor’s days were spent outside with all the other neighbourhood children. The beach was their front yard and the bush their backyard, a vast playground that stretched as far as the eye could see. In Waikiki the streets were named after various Hawaiian landmarks and most of his peers were the children of immigrants. Despite growing up amongst a hybrid of environments, beliefs and backgrounds, there remained the constant pressure to conform, a pressure that became more and more difficult to navigate as Paul tried to imagine his own identity.

From dawn to sunset, Paul remembers catching goannas in his pillowcase, kangaroos hopping past the bus stop, feature rock gardens, clinker brick walls, above-ground swimming pools, Australian memorabilia, the local Chinese takeaway, Boy Scouts and Boys Brigade, video game arcades, school rooms filled with maps, show and tell time. He also remembers slumber parties with boys sinking their teeth into the side of his neck, feral bullies marking their territory.

Paul excavates these childhood memories, both joyful and traumatic, and invites us into his inner world. What materialises is a lively hoard of beasts, each telling their own rich story. Just as the many facets of his self have formed and evolved over time, Paul’s beasts are both real and imagined, flourishing and endangered, some even extinct.

His expression of this world is rich and layered. Cracked ceramic plates are carefully pieced back together and preserved in vitrines, like ancient artefacts in a museum. Vintage maps of Tasmania are vandalised with wild illustrations. Vases, bowls and candlesticks come to life, calling to each other from their wooden podiums. Fine art meets kitsch as he takes these typically civilised forms and gives them heads, tails and big dicks. He mixes the time-honoured medium of clay with stuff from the thrift shop and dollar store, sprinkling the works with pop references and queer innuendo.

Paul’s innate urge to collect and archive is imbued throughout this series, whether it be in the materials he uses or in the stories he shares. EXTINCT/IMAGINED is a fun and deeply personal expression of self; a layered, raw and irreverent homage to the things that shaped him. Beware, a beast lurks in your garden.

Paul dedicates this exhibition to his best friend Aurelio Costarella (1964-2025). Extinct.

Artwork photography by Chantel Concei.

Artwork location: Hobart

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