The End

TCB, 1-5 Wilkinson St, Brunswick - August 1- 23, 2026

The End - Sarah Kottek

Endings are something we observe but never experience firsthand. They loom ahead of us, creeping closer, until, in less than a moment, they have already passed. In their wake, a new, cloudlike formation peers over the horizon, threatening something that it too cannot deliver.

As a product of narrative, endings can’t truly exist in the natural world. Even in death, our body becomes nutrients that continue to feed the cycle of life. It is only the things we make, in the structures we place them in, that end. We even try to make ourselves fit these narrative structures, manufacturing our lives for third-party consumption, and comparing moments lived to those in film, as if these are somehow more ‘real’.

Contemporary temporality and ‘endless present’ lend to a growing disconnect between narrative time and progression, and that of our own lives. As these detach further, somehow it is our real lives that appear blurrier, lower-resolution reflections.

There is often a necessary ‘self-annihilation’ involved in watching a film. As the lights turn off and the people around you quiet, you are invited to forget yourself and to leave your body. To fully partake in the story that unfolds, you cannot be present. These works hope to capture the moment of separation from the film, when the ending is realised and the audience, ejected from the film, returns to a vacant self.

? - The Blob (1958), 2026 Oil and acrylic on MDF, 64 x 38 cm

L-R: Конец - Зо́лушка, Cinderella (1947), 2026, Oil and acrylic on MDF, 80 x 60 cm; The End?!? - Little Shop of Horrors (1986), 2025, Oil and acrylic on MDF, 144 x 81 cm

T-B: The End - Psycho (1960), 2026, Oil, acrylic and coloured pencil on MDF, 60 x 40 cm; Not The End - Hangmen Also Die! (1943), 2026, Oil and coloured pencil on MDF, 60 x 40 cm; Finis - The Red Shoes (1948), 2026, Oil, acrylic and coloured pencil on MDF, 60 x 40 cm

The End? Or is it? - The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001), 2026, Oil and acrylic on MDF, 60 x 40 cm

Конец - Зо́лушка, Cinderella (1947), 2026, Oil and acrylic on MDF, 80 x 60 cm

? - The Blob (1958), 2026 Oil and acrylic on MDF, 64 x 38 cm

The End - Psycho (1960), 2026, Oil, acrylic and coloured pencil on MDF, 60 x 40 cm

Documentation by Gerry Kottek

You may also like