Michael Buckley is a filmmaker, performer and visual artist. He was recognised for his innovative approach to practice with a Writing Fellowship (2000) and a New Media Fellowship (2002) from Creative Australia. He is a member of the legendary vocal performance group’ Arf Arf’ who have an extensive performance history in Australia and Europe.
Buckley combines text and image in the many artist books that he has produced in his career as a professional artist. In an exhibition at FRISA Gallery, Hamburg, Germany (2014) he created large-scale, cut-out figures based on his stories and attached them directly to gallery walls. In Nigra Substantia he has expanded on this approach to artmaking. In this compelling and sometimes amusing installation, the theme of the brain and how the Nigra Substantia functions, are explored through the positioning and juxtaposition of text and large cut-out figures, which flow along walls and onto the floor.