things i should have seen coming

Marcus Keating 

A solo exhibition of new work by Marcus Keating. Contemporary self-portraiture that tells stories of an Australian childhood, fusing queer culture and a dislocated sense of place.

Painting here is limp and crumpled, clinging to, or fleeing from the stretcher and wall. Bruised rainbow canvases imparted with whispers of biographical truths.

Pastel hanging doorways and propped signposts are markers that point to early trauma and threads common to all human life.

the numbing shock when she left like she had forgotten to take me with her she ended up going back there for a few months she never said why maybe just to prove that it was real one thought leads into another until they are equally none and both, gouache on calico, 1.5 x 2m. 2021

her best friend had been kidnapped but only for a little while two guys grabbed her on the way to school she managed to get away though kicked open the car door and rolled out onto the road broke her arm in several places he had been drinking so had forgotten to pick me up from taekwondo these two women offered to take me to the nearest pay phone to call home it was too quiet and cold and dark and i realised that they were walking me in the wrong direction, acrylic on calico, 1.5 x 2m, 2022

youre in the back seat of a car full of guys you don't know because youre angry and hurt and needed to get high the car goes deep into the bush speeding down dark and narrow roads just for kicks panic sets in as youre not sure where you are anymore and theyve just turned off the headlights, gouache on calico, 1.5 × 2m. 2021

he died of severe head trauma no one was ever charged we were all chased by that car that night you learn very quickly to become hypervigilant about engine noises and headlights on the dark, gouache on calico, 1.5 x 2m, 2022 

whirling until i was sick stars on 45 a bed full of other peoples kids

i was a lot luckier than she was 

hiding from him amonq strips of bark rotting bracken and broken glass 

like an episode of 90210 we waited for a responsible adult to tell us wed gone too far but no one ever did 

the memories bean like overlapping clouds 

once knew for sure I started planning to get out 

things i should have seen coming 

gouache on linen, acrylic, timber, dimensions variable 2021

she most definitely had learning difficulties but back then she was just called dumb barely even flinched when she was stabbed with a compass durinq science seemed grateful for the attention my friend lived nearby and decided to check in on her she shared a bedroom with her brother who had plastered the walls with hardcore mags and guns, gouache on calico, 90cm x 70cm, 2020 

safety is a precarious idea everything has the potential to slip away within a moment and change something powerful into something vulnerable that moment when it all shifts and you realise how little you know about this person and how all of a sudden the world both expands and contracts at the same rate, gouache on calico, timber 1.5 x 90cm, 2020