PROFILE :: CHRIS BENNETT

Chris Bennett is an Australian artist currently living in Franklin, Tasmania.  He grew up on the Sunshine Coast and moved to Brisbane in 2000.  There, he completed his Bachelor of Fine Art in 2006, and continued in 2007 to obtain first class honours at the Queensland College of Art.  

Chris has exhibited in various group and solo exhibitions over the past three years, and has been a finalist in both the Theiss Art Prize, the Stanthorpe Art Prize and Redbubble.com "In the Moment" Competition.

Chris has been developing his current series over the last three years, focusing on themes of urban alienation, entropy and social decay, and the slow death of personal aspiration.

His particular focus is on the intimate and private moments when an individual pauses to reflect on the stagnancy of routine, fleeting adolescence or an intangible burden.

One of the key influences in his work is cities and their effect on people.  As an example, where in many eastern countries, or rural parts, people gather together and share their problems and embrace one another, in western society many tend to shut themselves away and let themselves fall into the grind.

"I have observed a lot of loneliness and alienation in population dense areas, where it is not practical to engage with everyone - IT would consume all your time - which I think leads to a wider social alienation and social apathy towards others.  I make this work to explore the different and very private manifestations of this social condition; a community of individuals disconnected from each other, yet sharing a common ennui".
 
Through his work, Chris hopes that people will engage with the image, discover a resonance in their own experiences, and perhaps find the same harsh beauty in the emotional starkness of the work that he does.   He also hopes that people see his work as inspiration to enrich the lives of the people around them - including the people who they encounter just momentarily - with simple acts of kindness

On a visual level, Chris's main influence is film.  As is evident in his work, he has taken a lot of his composition, lighting, and colouring methods from the way films are put together.  

"I find the aesthetic of film a very intimate medium, and I guess I unconsciously gravitated towards that kind of feel as a consequence".

Click here to view Chris's bio.