Statement

‘Aloft’ 

I have been thinking about the personal and the symbolic in the creation of this new series.

The narrative basis for each piece is born from familial stories of rootless existence, of explicit and implicit forced migration and the universal desire to establish roots, however tenuous.

I am seeking to examine this narrative through the creation of works that are paradoxically anchored by the weight of a symbolic history and desire for place, yet stand in preparation for flight.

To be aloft suggests to be high up, drifting, floating in an effortless fashion. It also connotes a loss of control, a theme to which I return often.

Biography

Daniel Agdag is an artist and filmmaker based in Melbourne, Australia whose practice sits at the nexus of sculpture and motionography. 

He creates highly detailed sculptural pieces that have been described as architectural in form, whimsical and antiquated in nature and inconceivably intricate. 

Cardboard is his primary medium. Drawn to its utilitarian origins and monochromatic presentation, he creates a paradox of fragility and strength with structures that resemble architectural forms and machines by utilising a medium that is essentially paper, and preserving them under glass vitrines or bell jars. 

Agdag describes his work as expressions of symbolic self-analysis reconstructed in three dimensional form – mechanical manifestations of his thoughts, ideas and ancestral stories. 

He is inspired by the overlooked, concealed mechanisms and systems that enable the industrialised world to function, and often explores the playful, fantastical realms of invention and imagination. 

The son of Armenian immigrants, Agdag studied fine art before his interest in the moving image drew him to filmmaking. He received a Masters in Film and Television from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2007.

He has exhibited solo shows in Melbourne and New York and been presented at several international art fairs: Melbourne Art Fair; Sydney Contemporary; Art Central Hong Kong; VOLTA Basel; Art Fair Tokyo. His work is held in private collections in the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia and Europe.

He has completed several private commissions, notably for Hermès Paris, and in 2014 completed a large scale public commission – a steel installation, ‘The Inspector’ in Abbotsford, Melbourne. 

His work has been published in New York-based curator and author Lori Zimmer’s The Art of Cardboard (USA, 2015) and featured in DesignerBooks’ Paradise of Paper Art 2 – The World of Dance Paper (China, 2015).

He is a triple Sydney Film Festival Dendy Award winner, as well as two time nominated and 2017 winner of the prestigious AFI / AACTA Award. His film Lost Property Office (2017) was shortlisted for the 2018 Academy Award for Best Short Animation, and has screened globally.