Mentalism is the latest iteration of the goal of my Peelings: to highlight the beauty of outsiders, both people and places, that don’t meet traditional societal standards and expectations. Peeled from Sydney’s Gladesville Mental Hospital, formerly known as ‘Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum’.
  
Mentalism draws inspiration from the psychological theory of the same name, which sees physical and psychological phenomena as explicable only through the vessel of a perceptive, interpretive (and therefore creative) mind. This idea pervades my work, as I relish the diverse narratives that audiences read into my works. In this way, audiences’ perceptions and interpretations help to create the work.

Mentalism Part 1

Exclusively Peeled from an Auto Wreckers in Sydney’s West, - serendipitously called “Pick and Pull Auto Wreckers” and since demolished and redeveloped - Industrial Strength marked a return to gritty, industrial sites for Peeling.

The series incorporated the abundance of industrial detritus found in the abandoned space: from spilled oil, accumulated dust, grease and scuff marks to discarded bolts and screws, the series embedded what would otherwise be debris and detritus, using these as compositional focal points. Reframed outside of the locale of a condemned building, Industrial Strength reimagined these scars, marks and scratches as beautiful histories.

Industrial Strength

For this particular body of work I assumed the role of artist as archaeologist, aiming to capture the detritus of a burnt-out meat factory, where the substrata of the site, captured in the peelings, enacts a metaphor for my memory of those places.

The site is set for redevelopment and once that happens there may be no trace of what existed previously other than my peelings.

Christophe Domergue