12th - 21st May @ 8pm Opening night 6-9pm Thursday 12th May   The Owl and the Pussycat is pleased to present the apocalyptic works by Melbourne Artist Hop Dac. A lone cyclist rides past a building of mustard, almost radioactive yellow, wearing a dust mask like those seen recently worn by Japanese citizens confronted with nuclear disaster. In this image, though, the cyclist is riding towards the light, as though going to meet her fate. As the exhibition title suggests, Hops works show interiors recently vacated by humans, leaving behind them their quiet and notable absence, showing the world going on without them.  “It’s not about the end of the world, but the restlessness of the possibility” says Dac. Hop Dac is a light worshipper. It’s a light that scrapes over walls and tumbles over lino, which slants in from above to glut a room or a street.  The urban scenes and interiors are formed by a light, which doesn’t simply serve to illuminate the scene, but is integral to the meaning and construction of the picture. “I thought I was a surrealist painter for a long while,” says Hop, “but lately I’ve been finding that more and more untrue. I’m increasingly drawn to painters like Henri Rousseau, James Ensor, Frida Kahlo, because I think what makes their work so enigmatic was that it came from their own visual language, their own symbols. It’s increased my devotion to my own symbolic language.” Born in Vietnam, Hop Dac was raised in Western Australia and studied Fine Art at John Curtin University. Hop currently resides and has a studio in Footscray, Melbourne, where he’s been painting largely by commission. His work can be found at www.hopdac.com.
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