This conceptual video-performance work uses the notion of artistic persona to explore issues and anxieties around making art today. Assuming a contrived alter ego (part Andy Warhol, part Liberace, part Russell Crowe) ‘Paul Mumme’ introduces a survey exhibition of his work that he claims will be his last. He outlines the reasons he will be ending his career, touching on several timely issues faced by visual artists given the current cultural, economic and political climate. A mixture of artifice, honesty, pomposity and insecurity, the work is a bizarre self portrait of a contemporary Australian artist.
