Premio Combat Prize

Grid structures permeate our daily existence. Tiny pixels on a computer screen, lines dividing the days of each month on a calendar, the layouts of cities and buildings, cartographic representations of our locations on the globe. The grid is emblematic of a desire to rationalise and structure our lives for the purposes of efficiency and control.
Within the logic of the grid, ”This Blows” seeks to explore the conflation of geometric abstraction and text. The flow of systematic, structured patterns located within the grid are ruptured through the brazen dumping of critical language into the image.
By negating a singular target for the phrase ”this blows”, a small amount of text is able to hover between multiple references. It has the potential to simultaneously refer to the arduous, time-consuming process of colouring in each individual square by hand; the dismissive attitude directed toward the work by its maker; and the lack of satisfaction with one’s circumstance and surroundings.
Terrence Combos is an emerging artist currently based in Sydney, Australia. Since first exhibiting in 2009, his work has been included in a number of group shows across Sydney, and he has been selected as a finalist and won awards in multiple art prizes. In 2013 he was awarded the drawing/printmaking prize at the Fishers Ghost Art Award, and highly commended awards at the Blacktown City Art Award, bentART Prize and the Kudos Emerging Artist and Designer Award. Following his first solo show in 2012, his second solo show is scheduled for May 2014.