Mornington Peninsula-based artist John Baird creates works that are at once fresh and familiar, contemporary and classic. Working across painting and sculpture, the artist has developed a bold, flattened aesthetic to examine the interior landscape of domestic life and the slippage between utilitarianism and decoration. By consciously conflating foreground and background, Baird infuses his paintings with a surreal and somewhat claustrophobic tone that enhances his recurring theme of domesticity and interiority. With a lingering aura of nostalgia, the comfortable chair, the dressing table or the floral arrangement are elevated from the commonplace, while children play outside in leafy trees and boats are glimpsed on the horizon. For Baird, there is a 'coded diary lurking behind each work,' and collectively the works form an allegorical narrative that enlivens our memories and inspires our imaginations.
