Don't Stress! I'm Not Vaping...

This work, titled Don't stress! I'm not vaping…, by Van Nishing was completed by the artist on the 19th of June 2023. It is a sculpture made from cardboard, spray paint, papier mâché, glue and cotton wadding, measuring 1.5 by 1.5 metres. It is hung high on the wall of the exhibition. 

It is a sculpture of a person's face, covered by a hood. The face is 150 cm high and 90 cm wide, the face and hood protruding from the wall approximately 80 cm. Clouds of vapour spill from the figure's open mouth.   

To the left of the face a speech bubble, made of cardboard, has the words:  

'Don't stress! 
I'm not vaping ...  
It's been so cold ... but   
we can't afford to   
put the heater on.'  

The words are neatly handwritten in a conventional font, black ink on upcycled plain, brown cardboard. The text is bordered by a hand drawn, thick line.  

The hood around the figure's face is fashioned from skilfully scrunched cardboard, as though drawn in snugly by a cord. At the top, the hood acts as an awning, partly obscuring their forehead. The material drops away under their chin. It is a neckless face. The cardboard used to fashion the hood is fresh from its previous use, an industrial imprint stamped on the paper product, adjacent to the figure's left eye.  

The sculptured face, painted brownish pink – with high, thin eyebrows in a surprised expression – is captured mid exhale, eyes wide open. Green irises are rimmed in a dark outline, thicker along the upper eyelid and thinner underneath. The figure's cheekbones are high and broad, tinged pinker than the rest of their face. They have wide nostrils and a full top lip. Their bottom lip and chin are immersed in a carefully structured white vapour – made of cotton wadding – that is spewing plentifully from their lips. The vapour curls up and around their left cheek in a half-moon shape, petering out adjacent to their eye – lumpy and imperfect.  

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The label text for this cartoon reads: Van Nishing's sculpture comments on both the unaffordability of housing and energy costs for many Australians and the vaping law reforms announced by federal Minister for Health Mark Butler in May 2023. The implication is that vaping is a relatively minor issue, but like a cloud of vapour it obscures the real issue of the cost-of-living challenges facing young Australians.