Concrete Playground

Step out of character, become yourself is the fruition of the Rob McHaffie’s stint in the Byron Bay hinterland earlier this year. The exhibition title is borrowed from the walls of the Nimbin Museum, and the show itself is totally Byron, peppered with all the connotations that the coastal haven holds for us stressed-out city folk. The tongue-in-cheek, humble-in-size canvases explore how this place can simultaneously stand for spirituality and luxury: idyllic scenes of nature are tempered by symbols of mod cons, as seen in African fertility sculpture having a caffe latte.
 
McHaffie is funny and playful while rendering his complex characters human. The young Melbourne-based artist has a penchant for the grotesque and this comes through in elements of his paintings, where faces warp and features blur. Although he successfully highlights the ludicrousness of some situations and characters, he is not judging, rather he is supporting his companions as they move between spiritualism and materialism.