Upwardly Mobile by Ben Sherar

This work depict the Dome Cafe in Mt Lawley at night. Sherar's figurative work portrays unknown human subjects engaged in daily activities and light poles glowing in urban nightscapes. With an intense focus on the subject and attention to detail his work gives a different sometimes disquieting view of scenes we witness every day. My latest exhibition 'If not for the dawn' is inspired by my late night meanderings both here in my local area and in the unfamiliar territory of inner city Mt Lawley's back alleyways. With a sense of detached solitude I observe the empty areas now quiet with the advent of night the occasional stranger passing at a distance like a stray cloud or a ship adrift on an empty sea. Without the coming of the morning light and human movement such places would remain quiet and slowly slump into urban decay; becoming empty concrete deserts dotted with rubbish and the discarded remnants of our throw away consumer lifestyles. The still burning streetlights glow like beacons of hope enticing passers-by like moths to a light and herald the encroaching night. I hope this new exhibition captures the sense of the pervading night that would cloak us all 'if not for the dawn'. - Ben Sherar October 2011