Lonely Sea review
December 14, 2008
Paul McNeil is not one of these newbie surfers, with their logos and emo haircuts. In Byron Bay, they call him The Mayor. He has been surfing and designing boards for decades. In this show, he brings bits of the old school to Melbourne and attempts to reconstruct a culture for us. In some ways the works are in-jokes, but they also subvert souvenirism, which must have been quite a galling development in beach culture for a wizened old dude.
The most affordable pieces are convex blobs of polished, leftover resin. Decorated with labels and diagrams, they lay out a history both imagined and political - from the simple Manly Artists F--- Off to the ironic Secret Island NSW 2026 (either a mysterious future time, or Bondi's postcode). There are real boards in delicious imaginary shapes. A wall of three-colour canvases lays out a friendly symbolism derived equally from Charlie Brown, Hindu iconography, shark studies and weed.
Penny Modra