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Not
Just a Suburban Boy, by Edwina
Preston. Duffy
& Snellgrove, 2002. ISBN
1 875989 89 7. RRP
A$22.00. |
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Not
Just a Suburban Boy is part of a new series of short,
pithy, brightly-jacketed biographies entitled Brief
Lives, the brainchild of publisher Michael Duffy.
Passion is Duffy's main criterion when matching author
and subject, ensuring his writers produce highly charged
material on their subject, be it in a positive or negative
light. This rebellious ethic throws the traditional notion
of objectivity to the wind in favour of a fresh perspective
and an exciting read.
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Which,
precisely, is what artist/musician and first-time author
Edwina Preston's biography presents — a fresh perspective
on the life and loves of the late Australian artist Howard
Arkley. Preston's simple, matter-of-fact style makes for
quick and easy reading and she has a knack for quirky
and yet highly accurate exposition. Preston is concerned
that the heroin overdose and suburban artworks of the
1990s have come to define Arkley, stating in her introduction
that "what's missing is a sense of the person behind the
art, and the relationships that supported him and enabled
his success".
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It
seems that following Arkley's death, his life became more
important and elusive than his now hugely expensive paintings.
The 1997 monograph Spray: the Works of Howard Arkley
is a terrific survey of Arkley's work, containing many
glossy reproductions and candid interviews but, as is
perhaps natural in such a work, the biographical details
are minimal and there is no sense of the 'real' man behind
the art. The first half of Not Just a Suburban Boy
is dedicated to filling the empty canvas of Arkley's personal
life, in sometimes obsessive detail. It is interesting
to note that although almost all of Arkley's quotes in
Boy were taken from Spray (with permission
and support from the authors), Preston has also extensively
interviewed his family and friends and it is through these
priceless stories that an endearing, and troubled, man
emerges.
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One
of the major themes of Preston's book is Arkley's inability
to look after himself and the "women who protected and
sustained him". Beginning with his mother, Gwen, a series
of amazing women had endless patience and love for this
kind, brilliant and seemingly utterly hopeless man. It
almost seems as if some of their affection rubbed off
on Preston, as the second half of her biography is written
with a deeply sympathetic subjectivity. It is unlikely,
however, that a more objective approach would have produced
a more effective biography, especially this close in time
to the date of Arkley's death. Preston does not, however,
allow her obvious empathy for Arkley to distort the facts
and presents a seemingly accurate, albeit defensive, account
of a man increasingly corroded by the effects of heroin
addiction. Preston's opinions are, moreover, far from
distracting — if anything they add passion to the
latter half of the book, which may otherwise have been
a depressingly downward spiral.
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To
break up the bleakness Preston presents some wonderfully
interesting and revealing anecdotes involving Arkley and
his exploits and the extracts from his postcards to his
mother are charming. The book also offers a quick and
fascinating dip into the Melbourne art and punk scenes
of the 1970s and '80s in which Arkley was heavily involved.
Preston is critical of these exclusive and captious cliques,
in particular the nature and effects of their obvious
influence upon Arkley's life and works.
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Ultimately,
Preston has achieved her aim. She has stripped away the
false public persona, the heroin addiction, the neon suburban
exteriors, and uncovered the shy, good-hearted and complex
character of Howard Arkley. There is now something to
stack between the bookends of 'heroin addict' and 'suburban
artist' — a brief but detailed picture of the man
behind the art. A man who was certainly not just a suburban
boy.
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References
Author Unknown, 'Howard Arkley Dies',
AM, ABC Radio, broadcast 23 July 1999, 8.14am,
<http://www.abc.net.au/am/s38404.htm>
(accessed 19 August 2002).
Crawford, A. and Edgar, R, Spray:
The Work of Howard Arkley, Craftsman House, Sydney,
1997.
Lumby, C. 'Long and Short of
Biography', The Bulletin, 23 January 2002 <http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/bulletin/eddesk.nsf/
b877473c18af22cdca256a1a00753b9b/ f8176e5d6eeb44a4ca256ad400107f92?OpenDocument>
(accessed 11 August 2002).
McAuliffe
C, Art and Suburbia, Craftsman House, Sydney,
1996.
Murray
Cree, L. and Drury, N, eds., Australian Painting
Now, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2000.
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