Jon Campbell

Melbourne-based artist Jon Campbell’s practice explores language and pop culture through paintings, drawings, light works, installations, and musical performances. A constant theme throughout his works is the celebration of everyday language, underpinned by the unique Australian slang.

Campbell’s 2021 public art installation Backyard represents a stylised pop version of Campbell’s childhood backyard in the western suburbs of Melbourne, echoing the aspects of everyday life in Australia, like a game of backyard cricket.

Backyard was commissioned by the Netflow consortium as part of the Victorian Government’s $1.8 billion Western Roads Upgrade public-private partnership, a comprehensive package of road upgrades and maintenance of a 260-kilometre arterial road network for 23 years across Melbourne’s western suburbs. This artwork was the result of an independent commission process managed by one of Australia’s leading sculpture authorities, Melbourne-based McClelland Sculpture Park+Gallery.

Campbell invited UAP to support his EOI and concept proposal, which resulted in Backyard being fabricated in UAP’s Brisbane workshop. The linear, billboard-like installation was created using laser cut steel, finished in bold automotive paint.