Artist Bio
Fabian Pertzel was raised surrounded by the farmland of New South Wales mid-coast and is currently working from the northern rivers where he is completing a Bachelor of Art and Design at Southern Cross University. The young emerging artist has used his time at university to Study sculpture and develop a conceptual framework for his practice, drawing on his experiences of growing up queer in rural Australia he situates his practice in the greater context of queer history and theory. This investigation into non-heteronormative social identities and contemporary culture has informed much of his work but he resists being defined by these limitations as many of these ideas intersect with seemingly unrelated aspects of today’s culture and technology.
Inspired by the works of cultural theorists such as Donna Harraway, Judith buttler, Slavoj Zizek and Julia Kristeva, Pertzel uses ceramics (raw and fired clay), textiles, latex, Plaster and cement, wax, as well as various other found objects like barbed wire to explore ideas associated with the spectrum of gender and sexuality, the politics of public and private space, abjection, and the relationship between the human body and technology. By exploiting the intrinsic properties of these materials, he explores the how the artists as a catalyst can transform materials into new states of being, in a similar way that technology can be a catalyst for the transformation of the human body and mind.
In contrast his recent methods for making art as a result of the limitations created by the Covid-19 health crises uses 3D rendered CGI sculptures, photoshop, and animations to posit questions about the absence of the body in technology and how we relate to the digital world verses the tangible corporeality. How do we navigate this new world where our human connections are mediated through the internet? how much of our identity is already manipulated by technology? Will this technology actually enable us to fulfill the constant drive for efficiency and productivity… should it? And what will be the next advancement in human, technological, or cyborg evolution that will save us from our worldly ailments? If it ever comes!