Peter Atkins: TV Week 1980 – 1985

Tolarno Galleries Viewing Room
Online Exhibition

26 August to 23 September 2020

“TV Week 1980-1985 attempts to locate pure monochromatic colour within the specific era of the early to mid-1980s.

The pastel blues and pinks along with the quintessentially ’80s fluorescent greens and yellows remind us that colour can transport us into another time and emotional space. Adding to this, each work in the series has two titles which reference the layered headlines seen on the covers of the popular Australian TV gossip magazine – when television series such as Cop Shop, Dallas, Sons and Daughters, A Country Practice and The Love Boat were prime time viewing for most families in Australia.

The sensational headline ‘Why Jack Thompson Posed Nude’ coupled with the evocative ’Inside Kamahl’s Sydney Mansion’ was the first work in the series which came from the cover of a magazine picked up in a flea market and led into the entire project as more and more magazines were sourced online.

It appeared that each magazine had increasingly more ridiculous headlines, including ‘Rowena: Why I Killed Pat the Rat’, ‘Nose Job for George Negus?’ and ‘Benny Hill – Why I Shun Women’.
Other titles such as ‘Jamie Redfern – Liberace Was Like A Father to Me’ and ‘New Sexy Rolf Harris’ take on a different meaning, adding a somewhat sinister tone, especially when viewed through the lens of history.
These titles are important descriptors as they help guide the viewer back to particular moments in time.

I have kept the large bold television shaped text of the TV Week logo intact as it’s a firm memory trigger and an important locator of experience for the viewer of the project.
It’s almost impossible to look back at these magazines with their lurid headlines and storylines and not marvel at the apparent innocence of the 1980s, especially when viewed from the world’s current context.”

– Peter Atkins, August 2020

TV WEEK 1980-1985

1. Why Jack Thompson Posed Nude / Inside Kamahl’s Sydney Mansion
2. Go-Go’s Pin-Up / Tony Barber’s New Toorak Home
3. All the Logie Winners / Superbitch Joan Goes on Strike 2019
4. E.T. the Alien Who Took Over the World / Tony Barber’s Sexy Summer Fashions
5. Benny Hill – Why I Shun Women / The Woman Who Tamed Erik Estrada
6. Larry Hagman Feud Erupts / My Shocking Sister Joan – By Jackie Collins
7. Rowena: Why I Killed Pat the Rat / Nose Job for George Negus?
8. Larry Hagman’s Crash Diet / Cop Shop Shock
9. TV’s Magnum Calls Off His Marriage / Wandin Valley Bomb Blast… Who Gets Killed?
10. JR’s Wicked Women / The Secret Side of Mike Walsh
11. Women and Me – Tom Selleck Tells / Joan Collin’s Nude Scenes
12. Secret Side of Dolly Parton / For Olivia the Terror Goes On…
13. Angry Network Dumps Rowena / Robert Wagner – The Love That Soothes His Silent Pain
14. Jamie Redfern – Liberace Was Like a Father to Me / Dune Photo Special
15. Pop’s Bitter Feud – Marilyn Vs Boy George/Thrown in a Communist Jail – Neighbours Beauty Tells
16. New Sexy Rolf Harris / Penelope Keith’s Husband What’s the REAL Story?
17. Abigail: Sex Siren Turns Arch Bitch / Brian Mannix Security Scare!
18. Those Crazy Dukes of Hazzard / Neil Diamond’s Torrid Love Scene
19. Love, Romance and Andy Gibb / Love Boat Captain Heads Religious Sect
20. Paula Duncan Back in Uniform / Lee Major Woos Farrah Fawcett Look-Alike

Peter Atkins is a leading Australian contemporary artist and an important representative of Australian art in the International arena. Over the past thirty-five years he has exhibited in Australia, New Zealand, England, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Mexico. He has been described as ‘a cultural nomad’ by the former director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Daniel Thomas, ‘an obsessive psychological wanderer’ by curator Simeon Kronenberg, ‘a visual anthropologist’ by the director of Fleisher/Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia, Alex Baker, ‘a visual terrorist’ by Spanish Curator and arts writer Paco Barragan and ‘a hyper-caffeinated bowerbird’ by arts writer Ashley Crawford.

Atkins’ practice centres around the appropriation and re-interpretation of readymade abstract forms that he documents within the urban environment. This collected material becomes the direct reference source for his work, providing tangible evidence to the viewer of his relationship and experience within the landscape. Particular interest is paid to the cultural associations of forms that have the capacity to trigger within the viewer, memory, nostalgia or a shared history of past experiences. Recent projects including Disney Color Project, Hume Highway Project, Station to Station, Polaroid Project and The Passengers all evoke within the viewer our collective, cultural recall.

His work is represented in the collections of every major Australian state museum including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of NSW, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Museum of Contemporary Art as well as prominent institutional, corporate and private collections.