Art (and Other Stuff) For The Masses

The Age

Friday February 11, 1994

Tim Winkler

Cheap art is not always poor art. TIM WINKLER previews an exhibition that is a case in point.

PAUL FRASER does not apologise for using his artistic talents for commercial purposes, proferring the a-man's-got-to-eat rationale that makes most art purists shiver all over. Furthermore, he says, he has possibly committed the ultimate ``prostitution" of his art, by drawing ads for a Melbourne brothel that appear in the `Truth' newspaper.

``It's actually one of the cleanest cartoons I've done," Fraser says, ``but it amuses me to see a cartoon in such a sleazy setting."

Fraser is 40, and has worked in a wide range of mediums in his past 20 years as an artist _ from manufacturing Elvis mobiles, to painting, to shop window design. He has worked in the music industry for a lot of that time, designing album covers, posters or flyers for Sacred Cowboys, Died Pretty and Kate Ceberano, among others. He has also spent the past few years drawing cartoons with Fred Negro, a former member of the punk band I Spit on Your Gravy.

Fraser describes Negro variously as ``a voracious reader", ``into shameless, full-blown self-publicity," and ``a drawing machine".

The two have put together a show called `Pictures, Painting and Stuff', at The Gallery at Tolarnos, in Fitroy Street, St Kilda. The exhibition features an array of comic art, silk screen prints, paintings, cut-outs, and other stuff. The pair will also whip up comic caricatures for visitors for $5, and will sell T-shirts, reprints and mobiles in an effort to provide affordable pop art.

This show may not have come about if the Bicentennial year had been a good one for Fraser. In 1988, while living in Sydney, he separated from his partner and had his rent doubled over six months, despite the city's monorail being built so that it ran past his front door and studio window. Disillusioned, he moved to St Kilda, where he found cheaper rent, ``more artists than I've ever met before" and Fred Negro.

Like Negro, Fraser has an unabashed, tell-it-like-it-is style. He says they have both ``had a lot of trouble with certain puritan elements" who have objected to their depictions of naked women in cartoons in publications such as `The Picture', and on some of Fraser's record covers. ``A lot of it is pretty full on, but it's not pornography," Fraser says. Their cartoons are a type of satire, he says, pointing out that the record covers that were most controversial ``are the ones that are still selling".

Fraser has initiated several art-related commercial ventures, including setting up a T-shirt shop and another shop selling his mobiles. Not all his efforts have been successful. ``I've been broke more often than most people have had hot dinners. I don't like being a broke artist." However, he dislikes publishers who dictate the direction of an artist's work, and is not at all keen on art galleries.

``There's a lot of other ways to be an artist than just (displaying your work) in galleries," Fraser says.

He recalls that his Sydney T-shirt shop was one of his favorite artistic creations because ``it was cheap and fun and no one mentioned the word art. I always thought galleries were just shops anyway, with just a rather high price tag on them. I got through to a lot more people with my record covers than I could have with galleries," he says.

+ `Pictures, Painting and Stuff' will open for a St Kilda Festival preview at The Gallery at Tolarnos in Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, between 1pm and 6pm on Sunday, before its official opening on Tuesday night.

© 1994 The Age

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