Future past or past future
Beneath their floating space galleons, men shelter from sickening skies and exploding suns. They dare not breathe the air nor touch the soil. Instead they view these desolate vistas through apertures in their visors and helmets. There are secrets in these strange places, but none they will ever fully understand.
These are the worlds of dreams and half-memories. The collision zone of past-futures and futures-past, derived from blueprints laid down decades earlier on the pages of battered sci-fi paperbacks, fantasy art books, and mid-century design quarterlies.
The soundtrack here is one of electronic signals, sculpted voltages, sonorous clangs, drones, hiss and squelch: a dancing energy shape hurtling towards the edge of infinity. Coaxed from the dusty circuits of machines bristling with knobs, switches and patch-cords, these aural tapestries establish a tone for the visual work; surreal landscapes and abstract forms.
Operating from his home studio in Adelaide, Australia, Dan McPharlin works across various media, in 2D and 3D. His artwork has appeared on record sleeves, international magazine covers, books and websites. In 2006 he began work on a series of cardboard models, known as the Analogue Miniatures. Photographs of these tiny models of fictional synthesizers and tape machines were subsequently used on a variety of record sleeves and magazines. Lately Dan has been occupied with various science-fiction illustration and design projects.