In our emerging geopolitical era uncertainty is widespread. Peak oil is hovering in the distance. Our climate and environment are less predictable. Global economies balance between the acceleration of capitalism and its unsustainable and inevitable collapse. Without Rule Of Law is a dystopian fantasy where domestic government and military forces have been temporarily or permanently disbanded resulting in the breakdown of civil society. And people are preparing for it; emotionally, socially and financially invested in it. They are called preppers.
Without Rule Of Law is a semi-abstract landscape composition which appropriates the aesthetics and materials of domestically consumed, military grade, luxury survival equipment. This slick commodification of existential collapse reflects an absurd predicament, where preparing for total breakdown of society, for some, seems more desirable than preventing it. Referencing the grand scale and format of iconic depictions of war throughout art history, a hypothetical and mysterious landscape is presented. Where morality is blurred, alpha individualism is rampant, and primal instincts take over. A delusion, or perhaps, a not so distant future.
Dan McCabe (b. Brisbane 1990) is a visual artist whose practice crosses between sculpture, photography, textiles and wall-based compositions. Recent work has focused on contemporary society’s complex and sometimes peculiar relationship with “nature” and the “wilderness”, appropriating the language and aesthetics of outdoor leisure activities, the online circulation of idyllic landscape photography, survivalism, and home/land ownership. In 2018 he will present a new body of work at the Art Gallery of Western Australia as part of the spaced 3: north by southeast exhibition, exploring contemporary spirituality, resource exploitation/tradition and nature as national identity. Developed over several months in central Finland, Dan McCabe spent extensive time in remote forest areas learning various techniques from local hunters, foragers, environmentalists and blacksmiths.
