Sideshow
"To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom" *1

Adam Cusack is an artist whose practice traverses multiple media including drawing, painting, installation and sculpture. His work explores ideas of authenticity and identity in popular culture. Cusack is interested in showing real things in provocative ways; assembling unrelated objects together to bring about relationships that challenge the perception of the original items.

'The act of making something to 'look real' is not what's necessarily important to the work. However, I have found that spending time on the rendering of the subject gives value to the idea, which in turn allows the audience to consider it's 'unrealism' and engage with my practice'

The new sculptural work, ‘sideshow’ focuses Cusack’s interest in society’s prevailing hunger for celebrity ~ and the images which feed a seemingly insatiable audience. Countless media and news companies procure photographic imagery which is published for profit without consent. What does this mean to the subject’s personal freedom? And what are the implications for a society that participate in such an exchange?

Conversely, an interesting philosophical exercise would be for the audience to flip it’s focus of attention back on itself. Let the ‘sideshow’ begin.

Adam Cusack 2018

1. This famous quote is often attributed to Socrates.