Mining the past for artistic inspiration

Ian Tee at Yavuz Gallery

Moby Dick (I Am The Devil In Your Heart)

Have you ever wanted something so much, it consumes your entire life? The talented young painter Ian Tee attempts to capture the roiling seas of desire and ambition in a buoyant new series of paintings now showing at Yavuz Gallery in Gillman Barracks. Nearly every painting feels like an intense showdown between competing elements, with clashing forms and battling colours, finding no rest or reconciliation. 

The central metaphor of these works is Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby Dick, in which Ahab, the captain of a ship, goes in pursuit of a white sperm whale that had bitten off one of his legs years ago. The hunt for the whale becomes so maniacal and delusional, he puts the lives of his crew in grave danger.