ROMAN LONGGINOU . TENSION

Roman Longginou
Architect . Nicole Weston Architect

Tension
2022
1140 x 800mm / Charcoal On Paper

The soft fall of quality cloth and the luxurious drape of a tailored garment invites complex thoughts of desire, aspiration and status.

Fabric is a loaded material. Like a false skin, its appearance can be misleading.

Covering like a mask or used to present “the image” of a flawless appearance. In multiple religions, images contain an idea of worship: to make an image is to make an idol.

My practice/work brings together these two realities of surface and reverence to articulate the pitfalls of materialism.

Tension leans into the tradition of vanitas painting. Depicting a red striped shirt under intense lateral strain.

The drawing is reminiscent of a human figure unravelling within a set of unseen yet extreme and opposing circumstances.

Caught in a place of crisis.

With hyper-real verisimilitude Tension reveals the illusory nature of these appearances and their fabric like fragility when placed under pressure.

About The Artist

Roman Longginou is an Australian visual artist whose work investigates identity and its relationship with the “idealized” image.

Working primarily with charcoal on paper, his grisaille-like approach to drawing brings together appropriated and original imagery.

Longginou’s works are riddled with symbols of idolatry, memento mori and the ephemeral, and develop tensions between objects of desire and their inevitable decay. Inspired by the idea that “seeing is an act of faith,” Longginou’s art explores how the images we behold inform the images we make of ourselves.