Cover image of the review
Installation view of Simon Zoric, Root, hog, or die, 2022. Courtesy of LON Gallery.

Simon Zoric: Root, hog, or die / Lou Hubbard: 1976


20 Aug 2022
Simon Zoric: Root, hog, or die, Lon Gallery 27 Jul - 20 Aug 2022 Lou Hubbard: 1976, Savage Garden 16 Jul - 30 Jul 2022

When I first met artist Sanja Pahoki at an opening in 2011 she told me: “Making art is a lot like taking a shit. Occasionally you have to wipe a few times.” I’ve always wondered if Pahoki told her students at the VCA this. It seems she has. Simon Zoric, who studied art where Pahoki teaches, is currently holding his first commercial exhibition and it contains six fabricated cast-aluminium cat litter trays, shovels and cat faeces.

Installation view of Simon Zoric, Root, hog, or die, 2022. Courtesy of LON Gallery.

Each tray is evenly spaced on the concrete floor of the gallery. A lone polychrome version sits in the middle, separating one black and one white iteration placed at the back. Monochrome red, yellow and blue sit together, reminiscent of the modernist preoccupation with the elements of colour theories. It reminds me of Mike Parr’s vomit piece The Emetics (Primary Vomit): I’m Sick of Art (Red Yellow and Blue) from 1977, where he spews up monochrome paintings in the same set of colours. Like the American minimalists in the 60s, the aesthetic of Zoric’s work also reduces itself to its necessary elements, achieving simplicity. As Andrew Liversidge notes in his exhibition text, “Zoric has a very economical way of re-presenting unlikeable things at scale to make them desirable… in the right format and correct size without sacrificing sincerity.”

To read for free enter your email address.

Log in with your registered email address.

Memo can continue to publish free, quality, and independent weekly art criticism with the support of our readers. Consider becoming a Patreon supporter or making a donation.

33