Brock Q. Piper (b. 1985) currently lives and works in Melbourne, VIC. Growing up on a farm nestled in the valleys of the snowy mountains, he was taught oil painting by his grandmother at the age of four. Piper’s work is a personal reflection of his life experiences, aimed at discovering truth through an exploration of time, death, shamanism and nature.

Brock Q. Piper on his practice;

Growing up in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, I have always been fascinated by birds in flight. The way they fold themselves, twist and contort their colourful bodies to float effortlessly through the trees. A blur in time, caught in another realm, between the past and the present.

Memories are similarly experienced. Fragments that come and go from our present, appearing, then lost again. They seem to twist and change and reform in our minds, barely tangible, constantly evolving with the addition of time and experience.

I am looking to create a visual poem through my work. Attempting to will the birds out of mid air, to grapple with them mid-flight. Working the image up in layers to allow the forms to evolve and dissolve on the canvas. As an exploration of self, I am dissecting my life as if it were a specimen pinned down to be examined, twisted and manipulated into its final resolution.

For me, the act of painting is one of dredging the past. A way of forging a visual story by conjuring history. It is a cathartic act of interpreting and understanding self and lived experiences. There is a little part of you that gets left behind in the work, like a shard of your soul embedded within the layers of paint.”