You win some, you lose everything
Ben Mackie
21.06.24 - 02.07.24
“Sometimes a man gets carried away when he feels like he should be having his fun” - Jeff Buckley
The lucky country is on a spectacular losing streak with Australians losing more per capita on gambling than any other country in the world. This staggering statistic sets the stage 1 for Ben Mackie's exhibition, "You Win Some, You Lose Everything," a series of intimate self-portraits that blend mementos and drawings into collages of life's little treats and big contradictions.
"Remember you must die" (the English translation of the Latin Memento Mori) was a cultural phenomenon present in Early Modern Europe where reminders of the inevitability of death were prevalent throughout art, architecture, literature, and music. Linked to this 2 idea are the vanitas paintings of the Dutch masters in the early 17th century. These paintings contained objects symbolising worldly pursuits that tempt humans—trinkets, goblets, pipes—alongside symbols of death and decay, such as wilting flowers, skulls, and rotting food. In these works, shame is inextricably tied to indulgence. The purpose was to remind us that the trivial pleasures of life are abruptly and permanently wiped out by death, or that while you may win some during life, in the end, you lose everything.
Mackie’s works on paper (framed in gold as a nod to sporting memorabilia) are filled with modern-day ephemera—scratchies, receipts, coasters, and pornographic images. These items reflect the paper trail of Mackie’s own experiences and interests - his fleeting joys and naughty indulgences. It is here that Mackie’s work finds an unlikely counterpart in the Dutch masters. He too acknowledges that you lose everything in the end, but unlike the humorless Dutch who aimed to encourage a pious existence, his work suggests that life’s little treats are often what make this reminder tolerable.
Gambling is a key theme in Mackie’s work and the internal battle between the fleeting euphoria of a win and the enduring disappointment of a loss plays out in his compositions.
In Japanese culture, the term "mono no aware" captures a similar sentiment, reflecting on the transience of life and the beauty of impermanence. In Buddhism, the contemplation of death, known as "maranasati," serves to remind practitioners of the impermanent nature of life. The Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) honors deceased loved ones, blending indigenous beliefs with Catholicism to celebrate the cycle of life and death.
In VIP pokies rooms, time flows like molasses, diluted and distorted by sights, smells, sounds, tastes and textures of the space, the sensory overload turning even the most rational of gamblers into Pavlov’s drooling dogs, unable to resist the promise of a jackpot, despite the knowledge that the house always wins. They are designed as vacuums to suck out the worries and responsibilities of the outside world and replace them with a mindless tranquility.
Whatever the vice, we are all driven by a primal aversion to discomfort, which can lead to a never-ending quest for short term pleasures. Doing so repeatedly, reinforces the cycle - making it difficult to come up for air. However once the dopamine hit wears off, we are forced to come to terms with our brain’s betrayal - it’s proclivity for seeking transient pleasure at the expense of reason. Mackie's compositions convey the sense of unease that comes with this realisation, using drawings amidst his collages to create contrast between inner dread and outward enjoyment. With clever use of familiar themes like the tragic/comic, he acknowledges the universal struggle of finding pleasure in activities that society deems shameful.
Oscar Wilde famously said, "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful." Mackie's art captures the internal struggle between instant gratification and long-term consequences, between societal norms and our most basic desires. His work reminds us that we crave peace and madness, Jesus and Tyson—our desires are as contradictory as they are intense.
Words: Victoria Maxwell
Room sheet here.
Photography courtesy of Leon Rice-Whetton.
Event photography courtesy of Mark Owen