Although working with a diverse range of media, Simon Tyszko’s work is a unity.
The artist’s materials include neon, video, bookworks, film, fabrics and assembled objects, whose area of exploration tends to a retrospective enquiry of the emotions-usually autobiographical, and often based around the family.
Presented as highly finished objects, their polished physical perfectness belies the potent narratives that are behind them.
Personal critiques, they are based on reminiscences of resentment, hurt, or reflective regret, the artist tempering his memories with a restrained, stylish humour,
often creating a mood of ambiguous playfulness.
The joys and dysfunctional tragedies described in Tyszko’s understanding of home life are complemented by his imaginative analysis of the wider, politicised social body.
Failing socio-economic and cultural value systems and their remorseless, cruel glamour and exploitation – such as advertising, geo-political economics, legislative prohibition (drugs), and pop culture – all become areas of concern in the twists and turns of the artist’s psychological dynamic. Whether using neon (the core symbol of consumer culture), actual cocaine, or by the homely knitting of incongruous garments – straitjackets – Tyszko’s practice identifies social forms against which the artist places the prismatic dramas that are his art practice.