Exhibits,

Dan McCabe, Loren Kronemyer, and Guy Louden WROL

“WROL” is an exhibition by Dan McCabe, Loren Kronemyer, and Guy Louden about preppers.

Preppers are a subculture of people that prepare for the collapse of society. They collect specialised survival products, skills, and knowledge. Prepping has its own aesthetics, vocabulary, and consumer objects, and its own apocalyptic values and fantasies. Preppers imagine a postapocalyptic future without society or state, or in prepper jargon, a world “Without Rule of Law (WROL)”.

Prepping is the spirit of our times, feeding on the apocalyptic impulse of rust belt america and internet-age libertarian fantasy. For preppers, economic, environmental, technological, and military disaster is inevitable. Their menacing “tactical” survival skills and specialised outdoor gear reveal an apocalyptic individualism focused on preserving the self. Investment in existential collapse reflects an absurd predicament, where preparing for total breakdown of a society seems more desirable than improving it. Preppers are betting against the house: they are emotionally, financially, and socially committed to disaster.

The artists have come together to create “WROL” based on a mutual fascination and investment in the prepping lifestyle. At Bus Projects, they will present sculptural, digital and wall-mounted works examining this subculture. Dan will exhibit wall mounted sculptures imitating tactical survival aesthetics. Loren will produce an installation that weaponizes the existing gallery infrastructure. Guy will present a custom interactive video game investigating the menacing psychology of the prepper subculture.

Dan McCabe is a contemporary artist born in Brisbane, Australia. Since completing a BFA (Hons) at the Queensland College of Art, he has exhibited widely, including at Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, A-CH Gallery, Griffith University Art Gallery, John Paynter Gallery, Queensland Centre for Photography, Metro Arts, Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Moana Project Space and Success, Fremantle. His work has appeared at the 2016 Next Wave festival and Spring1883 art fair, the 2017 John Stringer Prize, and in residencies internationally and in Perth. Dan was Exhibition Coordinator at Moana and at Success.

Loren Kronemyer is an internationally exhibiting artist from Los Angeles, California. Graduating with a BFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute, she moved to Perth to work with the SymbioticA lab, obtaining a Masters of Biological Arts at the University of Western Australia. Loren has exhibited widely, including recent projects with Performance Space, Underbelly Arts, The Big Anxiety Festival, Forum of the Future Portugal, Santarcangelo Festival Italy, Next Wave, Perth International Arts Festival, PICA, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, and Proximity Festival 2014 & 2013.

Guy Louden is an artist and curator based in Sydney. After completing an MA in art history at the University of Manchester he joined Perth gallery Moana Project Space in 2013, becoming Director. In 2015 Guy co-founded and developed a large-scale experimental gallery, Success, continuing as Program Manager. His art and exhibitions have appeared at Firstdraft, Polizia, Success, Moana, and in the 2015 & 2016 Perth International Arts Festival.

Catalogue:
“WROL”
Text by Graham Mathwin