PAUL YORE
DEEPFAKES
14 April – 13 May 2023

STATION | MELBOURNE

DEEPFAKES showcases Paul Yore's intoxicatingly disobedient approach to image-making and his personal reaction to twenty-first century life and culture.

This exhibition offers an array of intricate quilts, sculpture, needlepoint and assemblage. Yore guides us through the excesses of modern-day consumer society using borrowed images, slogans, found text and symbols from all areas of life, in his characteristically colourful palette.

DEEPFAKES explores the premise that the truth is up for grabs. The term summons ideas of fake news, of a politicised and technology-crazed society on the precipice of madness. His use of folk art processes, including embroidery, needlework and quilting, expresses a cynicism towards technology. But his works are not proclamatory. Instead, Yore decontextualises well versed, hostile and propagandistic slogans, reconstituting them to breakdown preconceived ideas and encourage multiple readings. The text rendered in needlepoint – ‘YOU MAKE ME FEEL’ and ‘LEST WE FAGGOT’ is a far cry from the evangelising moral and religious concepts presented in traditional Victorian needlepoint samplers.

In a society driven by mass production and over indulgence, Yore’s works revel in excess. By using pithy quotes sourced from the news and social media, amongst neon lights, childhood toys and folk art, Yore speaks to the attention economy, aware that our focus is constantly divided. The audience’s fragmented viewings into Yore’s mind reassemble into a cacophony of tantalisingly different outcomes. Though his deliberately absurd, camp and linguistically dense works, Yore interrogates the unequal post-colonial, post-911, post-truth society we dwell in, and how Australia views and positions itself today.

Installation Views

Artworks

Paul Yore
SMASH THE STATE, 2023
wool needlepoint, appliquéd textile comprising found materials, sequins, beads, and frame comprising wood, acrylic, found objects, toys, mirrors, perspex and LED
84.0 x 84.0 x 7.0 cm

Paul Yore
SEX/ DEATH, 2022
mixed media assemblage comprising found objects, beads, buttons, enamel, shells, glass tiles, crockery, neon light, collage, acrylic, resin on wood
90.0 x 66.5 x 2.5 cm

Paul Yore
FUCK PICASSO, 2022
mixed media sculpture comprising found objects, wood, toys, acrylic, glitter, fringing, faux fur, fairy lights, castor wheels, sequins, collage, modelling material, beads, fabric, stuffing, glass and plastic flowers
129.0 x 90.0 x 43.0 cm

Paul Yore
LEST WE FAGGOT, 2023
mixed media textile appliqué comprising found materials, reclaimed fabric, beads, sequins, buttons, wool, cotton thread, and frame comprising wood, found objects, toys, acrylic, glitter, mirror and LED
85.0 x 85.0 x 7.0 cm

Paul Yore
FUCK PRAGMATISM, 2023
mixed media assemblage comprising found objects, beads, buttons, enamel, shells, jewellery, glass tiles, crockery, neon light, collage, acrylic, resin on wood
66.0 x 96.0 x 11.0 cm

Paul Yore
THE END IS NEAR, 2022
mixed media sculpture comprising found objects, wood, toys, acrylic, glitter, fringing, faux fur, fairy lights, castor wheels, sequins, collage, modelling material, beads, wire and plastic flowers
146.0 x 61.0 x 50.0 cm

Paul Yore
NO ONE KNOWS, 2022
mixed media sculpture comprising found objects, wood, toys, acrylic, glitter, fringing, disco light, fairy lights, castor wheels, sequins, collage, modelling material and plastic flowers
169.0 x 68.0 x 67.0 cm