Aaron O’Brien’s art work is eclectic in style, content and techniques , employing traditional painting techniques, photography, new mediums, altered ready mades, photoshoped images, to create works of art that would normally have two or three levels of integral meaning . He maintains that he is not restricted to one particular style of art, and lets the work or idea take its own form depending on what the art work is trying conveying whether it be pushing the boundaries in the expanded field of painting, or commenting on the world around us, often fusing different language’s of certain art movements as a literal meaning within the work to talk about issues pertaining to war, capitalism, the environment within a surreal and hyperrealist world
Toilet rolls, 1997, oils on canvas, By Aaron O’Brien
Mother Earth, 1996, oils on Canvas, By Aaron O’Brien
Pulling Face over Sky, 1996, oils on canvas, By Aaron O’Brien
Aaron O’Brien’s current work explores ideas about the spectacle and hyper reality of war in recent years and capitalism’s war on culture and the planet, through the use of his own camera he photographs city spaces, composing two- three shots into one semi fragmented view that creates a sense of the personal, through the use of new technology like adobe Photoshop he juxtaposes military and capitalist imagery that he has appropriated of the internet, to create surreal scenes of war in unexpected places , that look at the simulation and the spectacle of war, within a country that has not experienced war in recent years like his home city f Melbourne, Australia which has never really experienced the horror of war only a re-representation of it through the spectacle of the TV news, movies, the internet, news papers, etc that have the power to create a fear of war within a general public that has also never experienced a real war in recent years, also the work is commenting on the hyper real nature of war in the 21st century. His other current work centres around capitalisms war on culture and the environment and also critiquing the ubiquitous culture of hyperrealism within the 21st century in regards to jean Baudrillards philosophies.
burning Wallaby, 2009, Photograph, By Aaron O’Brien
A Capitalist War, 2010, oils on Canvas, By Aaron O’Brien
Melbourne at War Series-War of The Arts, 2011, original Mixed Media Printed on Canvas and Painted over the Front War section with oil paints, By Aaron O’Brien, Purchased By Victorian Collage of the Arts Dean for the Colleges Private Collection, Possibly due to the the Title which is reference to the taking over of the VCA by Melbourne Universty, which saw large Demonstrations of Teachers and students against the changes being brought about on the VCA inherently “The Melbourne Model” it was called.Personally I did the work in regards to VCA’s Predicament but also to talk about war’s abroad that our soldiers are apart of for no good reason, maybe if people in the west knew what war looked like in there own city, they might think twice about going off to war again.
Title Image, Static Doll parts, 2011, Watercolor paints on high GSM paper By Aaron O’Brien.
