KLUSTERFUCK Review in the ODT By Franky Strachan 18/8/11

Kluster****. Sam Ovens, Nathan Forbes and Ant Scarer. 

Hope, comfort, and censorship; just three ideas that Ovens, Forbes and Scarer willingly stomp upon.

This is commendable, however, since these astute Dunedin artists demonstrate insight and wit rather than prosaic discontent disguised as rebellion.

Ovens uses the pop aesthetic to express socio-political commentaries. The audacious, commercial colours deliberately demoralise his subject-matter, while the gestures, text and humour keep us fixated.

We Are Devoid is a sprightly print which appropriates the “Energy Dome” trademark of subversive band Devo with the parliamentary Beehive, so as to (somehow charmingly) debase our ostensibly “devolving” politicians.

Forbes, a second-year art student, uses clarity of form and immaculate brushwork to describe Lynchian horror scenes.

His narrative compositions cleanly describe an immensely disturbing part of human potential; the threat of brutal, instinctual violence from the minds of superficially prototypical children. Chucky meets The Shining in these challenging, yet disconcertingly appealing pieces.

Screaming inaudibly in the corner, Scarer has disgorged the mind of a graphic artist on multiple pieces of A4 paper. Fearsome and comical, these images of corpses, skulls, vamps and cars engage the eye with quick, descriptive lines which, when accumulated, form masses of animated details.

Rambunctious and original, the artist’s forceful “ramblings” lash the room with cheeky quips.