Melbourne design duo Alex and Georgie Cleary swing easily and often between fashion and art writes Alexia Petsinis.
Photographs: Alexia Petsinis
It’s a space for Melbourne’s cooler cats, that’s for sure. I’m sitting in Flinders Lane’s Gogo Bar, seriously amused by the chap on my left. He’s punching out nostalgic riffs on his thigh, in perfect synchronicity with the base of a funky town Bossanova bass. He’s enjoying a Vibe; you might say he is Vibing. Yes, Vibe certainly is almost an entity in itself here; personified in the easy come, easy go of Sunday rollers streaming in for something on the rocks and a first look at a series of artworks by boutique label Alpha 60’s brother and sister partners, Alex and Georgie Cleary.
Gogo is no art gallery and that’s kind of the point. Cultural and subversive art organisation Dirty Playground (which sounds excitingly rebellious, doesn’t it?) has partnered with Gogo Bar to launch the Alpha 60 team’s latest foray into creative expression. Seven mixed media compositions combining photography and finger painting, evoke a refreshing (if only experimental) deviation from the Clearys’ hugely successful fashion label, soon to celebrate its 10th year in business.
“We don’t call ourselves artists,” says Alex Cleary, “So having the launch at a place like this means that we don’t have to contend with the formalness of a gallery space.” That said, the works could easily hold their own in any hushed gallery. It’s their post-modern liberation of formal artistic qualities I find most intriguing and, between the clink of ice cubes in cocktails and buzz of weightless Gogo banter, my mind spins into artistic acrobatics over the metaphysical significance of each piece. ‘Yes, certainly a comment about society’s distorted perception of feminine beauty,’ I muse at one. ‘And that’s a Malevich-esque nod to the alienated figure emerging from the digital age of the 21st century,’ I reflect at another. But of course, I muse through the foggy trajectory of the deeply personal landscape. Georgie Cleary can better explain the true intentions behind her art. “The works really don’t have any deep or underlying significance to them,” she says. “Our team really just produced them for fun in our studio, it was a great way to try something outside of the fashion circle.”
So, I save my scholarly theories for another day, and simply absorb the effect of a medley of colours and textures enhanced by the technique of…wait for it…. finger painting. Bless. Only Alpha could make finger painting look like a brush with de Kooning. My pick of the lot is a milky, streaky, strangely soothing rendition of what I termed a modern female Pierrot; part melting ice queen, part ethereal spectre. Like all the works, its impact is enhanced by the idea that its prisoner of paint, in an unrecognisable photograph underneath, could well have been the Mona Lisa or Dolly Parton.
Art is subjective. Art is objective. Art is whatever you want it to be, say the Alpha 60 pair. And, consciously or not, their signature minimalist aesthetic, bold prints, and emancipation from the status quo in fashion, is somehow distilled in this collection of artworks.
It seems creative success gravitates towards those who are free and easy in spirit. It’s like a law of artistic attraction and relativity; the less hard you try in your chosen discourse, the more successful you are when innate creative intuition guides you. The Alpha 60 team are, and continue to be, testament to this; never trying to be ‘Fashion’ or ‘Art’ or ‘Style’, but rather, evolving in a free and natural manner. We never know what to expect from them next. I have no doubt that if the duo tried their hand at crocheting aluminium foil they would make that look cool and as easy as buttering toast too.
The Alpha 60 / Dirty Playground partnership and artwork series will remain at Gogo Bar, basement, 125 Flinders Lane, Melbourne for public viewing for the next few weeks. www.alpha60.com.au
Alexia Petsinis intern@voxfrock.com.au
