VIEWING ROOM

ROMAN LONGGINOU
'THE HYPOKRITĒS’

Hypokritēs – “an actor, stage player, dissembler or an interpreter from underneath”

Jerico Contemporary is pleased to present a new body of work by Australian artist Roman Longginou, ‘The Hypokritēs’. Showing exclusively in store at Belancē, the exhibition explores sartorial motifs in relation to masculine tropes and illusionary instances of pretence.

Ancient Greek stage actors were known for wearing large, obvious masks in an attempt to beguile and convince their audiences with the story they were telling. Known as hypokritēs, the actors would interpret a play or a story from underneath their masks with utmost sincerity, keeping their true identities concealed. Taking on the form of Homeric heroes like Odyssesus or demigods like Heracles, and deities like Zeus and Athena, these theatrical masks served as visual reminders of the ‘divine’ ideals for audiences to aspire to. Within the religious concept of an image lies the idea of worship. To make an image of something or someone, is in some ways, to make an idol of it: an act of reverence expressed through our devotion and conformity to it. The image of aspiration becomes the idol to be worshipped.

Similarly to the masks worn by Greek stage actors, we too wear our own masks. These coverings are informed by the images we hope for our lives to represent. Meticulously crafted, the ways we show ourselves to the world are as varied and changing as the garments we wear. Often tied to ideas of privilege and luxury, this image comprises the latest consumer products, dizzying phrases and buzzwords, intoxicatingly poisonous attitudes and a breakneck obsession with eternal newness.

Using both archival and contemporary imagery, Longginou crafts his own loaded narratives that play on these themes, each artwork meticulously rendered by hand in charcoal. The artist shows that like the figures within these drawings, it’s easy to become captivated by the lustre of picture perfect facades: torn between the illusive shimmer of a flawless surface and the spiritual bankruptcy that follows from its pursuit.

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