“Denimism”
Tony Garifalakis and Tully Moore
27 July → 18 Aug 2012
Denimism is a collaborative project by Tony Garifalakis and Tully Moore that investigates the cultural symbologies of denim. The series consists of a number of denim ’banners‘ with painted and mixed media elements that examine iconic symbols that have cultural links to denim.
The work references and subverts the semantics of motifs associated to trade union badges, trucking patches, rock band and gang paraphernalia and links it to denim’s historical association to the working class, urban style and outlaw cultures.
Tony Garifalakis’s practice engages with the ways in which the meaning of images, signs and symbols might be ascribed, conveyed or transformed in contemporary culture, and how conventional notions of hierarchy and status might be undermined. Garifalakis interrogates the visual language associated with social, political, artistic and religious systems of belief and subverts them through a range of strategies including a deliberate disruption of images to unsettle their meaning, subversive juxtaposition of images and text, and dark humour.
Tully Moore is a Naarm/Melbourne based artist whose work depicts the crumbling urban world that includes architecture, graffiti and old signage with precise painting skill.