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Stranger Things – Ian Strange
The intangible magic of art is its inherent ability to simultaneously engage, educate, bewilder and inspire – a power that is evident in the work of Australian transdisciplinary artist Ian Strange. Beginning his practice in Western Australia, Ian’s explorations in architecture, space and notions of home have taken him across the globe, generating a body of work that has transfixed audiences whilst challenging the very nature of their existence.
The first chapter in Ian’s storied career is set against the backdrop of suburban Western Australia, featuring skateboarding, underground artistry and the counterculture of mid-90s Australia. “Growing up in Perth, I fell in love with film, photography and visual artistry from a young age,” explains Ian. “I found a creative outlet in the form of graffiti, created on the canvas of Perth’s great urban sprawl. Reflecting on this now, I see the early foundations of architectural intervention and my first explorations into marking our environment.”
Graduating quickly from these early adolescent markings, guided by the unique Western Australian locality that formed the foundation of his future career, Ian’s practice began to take shape. “Studying art, film and photography helped form my creative process, but what was really influential was the idea that I needed to photograph graffiti before it disappeared,” he explains. “I began to document my interventions through photography and film, fascinated by this idea that more people could view the documentation than the actual intervention. This concept continued to inform my process to this very day.”
Globally recognised for his ongoing series of architectural interventions, Ian’s practice in film, photography, sculpture and other site-specific undertakings subvert the archetypal domestic home, challenging societal notions of place. “For me, the image of the single detached […] peakedroofed house is something that is both highly specific to community while simultaneously holding symbolic relevance on a universal scale,” says Ian. “Being able to twist, subvert or antagonise traditional notions of architecture is something I have always explored in my practice, and through this, I aim to change how we approach concepts of safety and shelter within the home.”
Ian’s desire to challenge traditional architectural applications on a global scale is evidenced in the exhibitions curated from his intervention works. American suburbia is explored in SUBURBAN, post-earthquake recovery in Christchurch is documented in FINAL ACT, and in more recent times, Ian returned to his home state of Western Australia for DALISON – a collaborative work with musician Trevor Powers that explores the idea of holdout homes. “The home featured in DALISON is very reminiscent of Australian suburban architecture and this familiarity fascinated me from the start,” he explains. “While the story of the holdout and the narrative behind its isolated existence forms part of the appeal, the loneliness of the image and the strong emotions it conjures [were] really what inspired the project.”
Testament to the visual mastery of Ian’s work, the process of creation holds just as much intrigue as the final result. Part art installation, part film set, each of Ian’s architectural interventions represent a choreographed theatrical production, sometimes years in the making. “The first step is finding a site that may work, we then need to engage the community, build a team and begin the initial concept sketches,” he says. “In many ways, I am working as both an artist and a director. We engage sizable teams to bring these large-scale interventions to life and, for this, I am incredibly indebted to the numerous long-term collaborators that I love working with.”
Ian’s passion for documentation – acting as historian for not only his work but for the homes (many of which no longer exist), lives and communities he has visited – is expanded upon in the recent release of his first monograph, titled ‘Disturbed Home’. Launched to coincide with his exhibition at the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial in Cincinnati, Ohio, the book is the first comprehensive survey of Ian’s career to date. “In my work, I’m interested in universal and shared connections to the image of the home,” he reflects. “These are places we tend to project with a sense of stability but are often more vulnerable and temporal than we would like to think. ‘Disturbed Home’ is the embodiment of this concept and features all my photographic, film and installation works from the past 15 years, alongside essays from important supporters [and] collaborators. This book is my career on paper, and it is something of which I am immensely proud.”
A world away from his early experimentations in spray paint on the walls of abandoned buildings in Perth, a large-scale series of works Ian recently completed in Cincinnati were exhibited at the 2022 FotoFocus Biennial. Showcasing a transition from classic Australiana to archetypal Americana, these light-based interventions explore how we choose to record communities living within suburban dwellings. “I worked with a sizeable team of collaborators to create two light interventions in Cincinnati that explore the notion of how impossible it is to understand a home’s history by merely gazing upon its architectural form,” explains Ian. “The works examine how ephemeral the lives of those that move within the home really are.”
Whether viewing Ian’s work in situ, upon the walls of a gallery, within the pages of a book or through the glow of a screen, it is impossible to not admire the sheer sensory overload it evokes. By subverting traditional notions of architecture, society, physics and even art itself, Ian continues to intrigue and inspire audiences across the globe.
