Merrin Eirth, Pop up Pedagogy with Placebo, 2022. Oil on canvas, 35 x 45cm. Courtesy: the artist and Tacit Art, Melbourne.

My Theatre of Errors visualises an appreciation of human folly, vulnerability and the perfect imperfections in humanness.

Ideas that motivate Merrin Eirth are found in ambiguous zones. Peculiarities poke holes in simplified views of humanness and they do not fit neatly into our storybook fantasies. When gaps in our thinking make nonsense of the rules we construct, there is mischief indeed and humour afoot. Working on a small scale provides Eirth with perfect rarefied conditions needed to distill dense content with sensibility and purpose, wit and provocation. Intimate contact with the picturespace provides an opportunity for viewers to connect with the details and herein we are more likely to have a personal exchange of ideas. A further strategy understands that condensed environments allow issues to be explored with special intensity, the mental space is fully occupied and there is nowhere for anyone to hide. Each narrative with its own peculiar scenario devises opportune moments for visceral exploration.

Eirth’s is a surreal view of lived and unlived experience with doses of humour, absurdity and serious contemplation in equal measure. She juxtaposes images seen on the street, including billboards, shopfronts, people and pets with found images from the web, as well as directly observed still life subjects and imaginary ponderings.

The eclecticism of the artist’s work sees encrypted images interacting with one another, coupling and uncoupling, which exposes a complex theatre of errors. She strives to unmake and remake meaning in her work, repeatedly revisiting ideas, continuously reviewing the nature of thought driving them. Absurdity demands a double take, it encourages reflective, critical thought. Eirth’s working process therefore remains in flux until the picture is satisfactorily resolved. Completed paintings lead to more drawing adventures – and the cycle continues.

Opening Event: Wednesday 12 July, 6.30 – 8pm.

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