Thom Buchanan is living in a dream world. No, really, Buchanan constructs beautiful, haunting paintings of deserted cities that don’t exist. There is something of the disquiet of a dystopian horror film in his work. Not to mention, Buchanan is a hyperactive exhibitor, so you are bound to find his work at show around Adelaide, or even in Darwin if you fancy a trip to the ol’ Top End. All with the power of a paintbrush and some oils, Thom tackles all the biggies – utopia, consumerism, the time-space continuum…

Why did you initially start painting? I have always been intrigued with painting and drawing from a young age. It is a great tool to communicate with, and it is really accessible. I love the way layers can be used to build up surfaces and I really dig the visual trickery because I mainly use perspective. For ten years I have been fascinated with perspective and space and I am just starting to figure out why. .

I noticed your new work is very painterly compared to the work you were producing a few years ago [a series of animals transplanted into empty city landscapes]… Yes I have been working with layering up the paint a lot more. I am interested in transparency and the quality of the paint more, whereas those previous works were very controlled. It was very intense spending eight months in the studio trying to get the photographic seizure and using many layers of paint and glazes. I have also refined and dropped back my palette a lot more. I have found myself using a lot of gold, yellow and bronze, which is a bit of a personal tribute to my mum who helped me out a lot with my dyslexia.

Yes, I noticed the bronze colours, I felt like they really emphasised the passage of time in your work… Yes, time is a big thing in my work. A time before there was these cities!

The colours are also to some degree a reference to the broader history of painting, you know, Vermeer and all the biggies. The quality of the light in paintings has really started to interest me more too. I’ve been using trying to paint golden light a lot, referring back to the idea of utopian cities. A utopian city can be a beautiful but negative idea. 

What is it about the landscape of the city that fascinates you? I notice there are not many humans in your cities, so do you see the city as a character? I have been writing my honours paper, and it’s called, “Residual memories of the built environment”. I guess that really sums it up. What really interests me is the monuments humans create, and the memories space can contain. I feel like humans don’t stay still long enough for me to paint them! The trigger point for me is really these huge landscapes humans reshape and the transience of what seems permanent. I am infatuated by the idea of perspective. I love 3 point perspective, and I have been really pushing in the last year or so to understand what this subconscious attraction to space is.

I think perhaps the other difference between your newer work and the older paintings is the older ones seem more allegorical. What has led you away from that? I think I have been finding meaning through the process of painting more. I have also been dealing with abstraction of the image more, focussing on the quality of the paint. The animal series focussed more on the contrast between these animals and the city, and the way the animals looked out of place in this shiny mechanical environment. The newer works are a lot looser and more open to interpretation.

How do you go about painting these cities? Are they from photographs? I should point out the work is a mesh of images, I use Photoshop to construct images of cities, using photos of existing cities and patching them altogether. So none of the cities are real places. Some of the photos I use are from my travel, for example cities around Australia, and Hong Kong. So using those photos also kind of references memories of existing cities, but reconstructs them. You could almost travel in the worlds or realms I create, but they aren’t real places. I am interested in the idea that I can create foreign and familiar environments.

So what do you see as the purpose of your work? I am questioning consumerism and the way we interact with the environment by constructing built environs. I’m also interested in fiction turning into fact, or the blurring of lines between the two. I’ve always been interested in George Orwell and H.G. Wells – writers that construct the future by writing about it. George Orwell wrote about Big Brother, and Stanley Kubrick made 2001 Space Odyssey and the next year men were on the moon! I like artists that turn fiction into fact, by creating the ideas that one day we might use to change the world we inhabit.

So do you see yourself as a commentator on consumerism or a participant? I am not taking a judgemental position on consumerism and sustainability; you can’t escape the society we live in. It is more a reflection than anything else, otherwise I would be a hypocrite – for a start I use more solvents and paint and paper than anyone!

It’s a bit of a love-hate relationship isn’t it! Yeh, in some ways these imaginary cities are beautiful, pristine places, but on the other hand humans construct these strange monuments and we are destroying the earth 
we live on.

There is something about your work that seems to suggest the machine vs. the human. For example the mechanised stencils vs. the visible paint strokes and expressive qualities of the work…. Yes the stencils also deal with the dimension of space…sutbly referring back to the flatness of the painting’s surface in contrast with the perspective.

I did a bit of the old Google search on you before the interview, and came across some interesting video work you’ve done [Thom has done a series of live drawing videos]. Could you tell me a bit about these and how they connect to your wider practice? Well about ten years ago I started doing live drawing with bands playing at venues in town. Initially this was to introduce my peers to what I did, and I guess to let people into the process. I was interested in fusing art and music, and taking it to the masses, and educating my generation. Then I took this into the studio and started documenting the making of my work, and collaborated with sound makers and film makers to make videos. I want to show the process, and also the progression of time. I think it is important to broaden your practice by pushing yourself to work with other mediums. It also helps me understand the process of painting and drawing. I’ve been working with an animator who has helped me make a video of myself walking into my own drawing, which is awesome! I would love to be able to step into these worlds I’ve made. 

I’ve noticed you are a bit of a manic exhibitor; you seem to always be showing. Have you got any advice for young artists? Find your voice, in whatever medium, have fun, push your boundaries. We are all archaeologists, scrape away at the surface; eventually you will find the bones (or treasure) that will enrich your world and the world around you.

Also, I’m not really interested in the politics and noise of the art world. Art is not the Olympics; you’re not competing for a gold medal!

So what’s next on the cards for you Thom? I am in a show in Darwin which is an exchange with Gallery 139 called ‘Territory’, the honours graduate show here at the South Australian School of Art Gallery, I’m in the Whyalla art prize show, and I’m having a show at the Chapel Hill winery gallery.