
āIf the success or failure of this planet, and of human beings, depended on how I am and what I do, how would I be? What would I do?ā
ā Buckminster Fuller
Sydney painter Tom Polo is an advocate of eavesdropping on public transport and at exhibition openings. His ear is a funnel to an internal resource centre of social discourse. Pooling these stimuli with the naive aesthetics of homemade signs ā which he takes great pleasure in reading and laughing at ā Polo hones his practice and thematic intention. By dealing in self-portraiture and common feelings and experiences with primary materials, his work dissects the corrosive anxiety we humans have around āwinning and losingā in society. As an ironic counterpoint to the success-obsessed art world, Polo has been known to waste time, rig arts prizes (The 2009 B.E.S.T. Contemporary Art Prize for Painting, MOP Projects 2009), grant himself fictional trophies and certificates (No Identifiable Culture, Campbelltown Arts Centre 2009) and exhibit (One Liners [or Suggestions for Conversations in Social Situations], Firstdraft 2009) and re-exhibit work shamelessly (Why do we do the things we do, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art 2009). The significance of Poloās work lies in its heartening immediacy, his fearlessness in experimenting with the role of artist and ālearningā winning and losing publicly ā for which he is valiant. When observing Poloās contemporaries like Jake Walker, Jon Campbell and David Shrigley, who are also painters combining text with a playfully ironic point of view, a shared consciousness rings true.
A constant focus and ongoing project of Poloās, Continuous One-Liners, explores a congress of mixed feelings via mixed media. As previously exhibited at a variety of spaces, and as currently hung on his studio wall, each work is adroitly installed and positioned to enlist an elastic response from the viewer. As well as this, the titling and often text-based nature of the paintings ensures they are dialogic. The following interview is an extension of this thought. A collection of Poloās artwork titles is paired with Poloās comments from a separate discussion. Itās a humble assertion that through his process and his work, he is constantly in conversation and competition with himself.
Sore winner, 2009
The 2009 B.E.S.T. (Because Everybody Still Tries) Contemporary Art Prize For Painting (MOP Projects 2009) was a project that I had been thinking about since the end of 2007. The art prize ran like the many art prizes that exist ā with entry forms, press releases, advertisements and, of course, an exhibition of finalists works at the end with an announcement and awarding of the big prize. One exception, as stated in the entry form, was that the only eligible entrants were artists born on the 1st February, 1985 and named as āTommaso Poloā on their birth certificates. My rationale behind this part of the project was that sometimes in order to be successful, or rather, be considered successful, people go to extreme lengths to exclude every other contender. It is also a little bit of a healthy āstick it to the manā on behalf of artists to art prizes and institutions. They dictate who the āthe winnerā is, which can equate to who is important and what is of value. There is often a push and pull effect with prizes that determine which artists are eligible to be compared to ā who is in whose league.
Iām rubbish, 2009
Because competition in art and sport is so big in Australia, thereās always that thing of the gold medal, the first place, and thereās an opposite end to that. So itās almost like by looking at both the winners and the losers, but focussing on failure, youāre giving light to the loss. I like that idea because we all fail sometimes and itās nice to highlight that. Was it Samuel Beckett who said: āFail betterā?
You are excellent, 2009
I had a project called Winners or Grinners (Gallery 9, 2007) where I had anonymous looking portraits hung in the gallery space, and next to each one I used found trophies sourced from op shops. I re-labelled all the trophies with my own name on it ā so it could have been a trophy from 1976 when I wasnāt even born, but it said āWomenās Ballet Champ, Tom Polo, 1976ā. Thereās this continuing fake desire to be greedy to win.
I wanna swap CVs with Shaun, 2009
One of the ones (One-Liners) people bring up sometimes is I wanna swap CVs with Shaun, which refers to Shaun Gladwell, a very well known, successful contemporary visual artist in Australia. Overhearing that turned into a note that went onto my wall, and into a work, which got giggles and some people said: āI wonder if heās seen this work?ā Itās this travelling of an initial idea, which begins as a note, a note thatād sit in a journal and then become a painting and then sit around my studio and Iād realised they had this element of people in themselves. They could have been people standing at an exhibition saying these things. Thatās why I feel itās portraiture. And thereās a mix of intimacy and things everyone says.
More Better, 2009
I need to take a deep breath before I say this, but I was in an under 10s square dancing champion. This idea of success came early ⦠apparently I do-si-doed quite well.
Artistic Integrity, 2009
What Iāve realised is that if you look at the paintings, they are text focussed, but they also have a painting background. So Iām always obviously looking at colours, discordant colours and maybe things that clash. Iām still thinking like a painter but I think Iām bringing a performative or conceptual element into it as well. Thereās immediacy in there, but quite an intentional immediacy. Thinking about the actual text that will go onto the piece might take days or weeks, but the act of making the painting might take minutes.
Jon, 2009
I didnāt see that show (Jon Campbell, Folk Songs, Uplands 2010). I saw it online. I would have liked to have seen it. Iāve seen a lot of Jonās work here in Sydney at Darren Knight. I respect Jon a lot as a painter and the one time I met him we had a really nice discussion just briefly at the MCA. We worked out that the show Iād had at PICA with these one-liners was very similar to a shot he has in his studio from the nineties, so thereās this really strange connection. Heās an artist I respect a lot because of the immediacy of some of them and the way he takes these handmade signs and brings them into the gallery context, which I think is important for the idea of the everyday.
Good Job, 2009
Some of my favourite things are some of the really crappy signs you see people make out the front of their houses. Theyāre really badly made signs, often with spelling mistakes, and what makes them so funny is the irony that these signs and advertisements are supposed to be enticement and these things are so bad, but so good.
No idea, 2009
I was riding the bus home recently and the guy in front of me had a large tattoo across his shoulder blades that read āSuch AS Lifeā. I still wonder if he realises heās wearing a permanent mistake?
Big head, 2009
I hung every single certificate or ribbon or anything I got as a child, in this massive installation, so you walked in and it looked like it was raining awards (Gallery 9, 2007). I wanted the viewer to walk in and realise that this thing happens from an early age. Itās quite funny reading some of the awards. They were for a pen licence or a well tucked in shirt, and Iām not gloating but I probably had hundreds of these little coloured cardboard certificates. When do we receive awards for wearing a good shirt in adulthood?
New idea, 2009
Sometimes I even secretly think to myself if it goes bad, Iāll just pretend it was supposed to fail. Thatās a concept in itself I think. I havenāt really kept a lot secret. Iāve been working my process quite publicly and thatās how I work out what is good and bad. Things donāt just have to happen in the studio behind closed doors where people canāt always see it.
The future, 2009
I was often titling the works with these texts that I thought were really vital for the work and then I realised the titles were actually critical enough to withstand the concept I was trying to get through. The text has always been there in my work through either titles or little side notes that Iād have when painting, but then I realised theyāre just as important. So for the future, Iām wanting to have these painterly works, but I think they can work alongside the text works.
Young people today, 2009
If Iām not wasting time Iām probably feeling guilty about wasting time. But honestly Iāve learned that sitting and looking really is very important. Even now, as weāre sitting and talking, Iām looking at that painting in the background thinking about the possibilities of things. That unconscious learning that we do through seeing: thatās probably what Iām doing when Iām not wasting time. Or painting.