The Machine of Being Print

Indian born, Australian artist Eugene D'Souza draws from his interest in sign systems, biology and his experience living and working in a number of countries throughout his life, to create eerie and evocative works of art. He uses a range of synthetic pigments and collage on both canvas and found objects. His works are like narrative visual poems, where the real and the stylised jostle for space. The viewing experience is one of mixed curiosity and disturbance – rather like peering into a murky half-lit aquarium or gazing at a cross-section of an ant-farm at a museum. There is an invitation on offer, to plunge into a world unmoored from familiar contexts. He has followed a somewhat unconventional career path, learning on the job working as a professional illustrator, whilst pursuing a medical degree. Later on, he attended short courses at Central St. Martin’s College and The Julian Ashton Art School, while continuing to do commercial and personal work. Acrylic paint and mixed media techniques are for him, an ideal way of capturing the hyper-urban landscapes in which he has lived and worked most of his life. As a largely representational painter Eugene has tended to question the nature of representation in his work. He does so by playing with the elusive relationship between signs and their referents. In his oeuvre just about anything, can start to creep away from its comfortable everyday meaning, into uncanny territory where its significance is up for grabs.