The perma-tanned face of Dale Winton is nowhere to be seen.

But Australian artist Ben Frost has borrowed the title of the show that turned Winton into a household name for his first solo exhibition in the UK for six years.

Frost, who lives without a phone and is concerned by humans’ appetite to consume, writes to The Guide via email. He says Supermarket Sweep works as a title because it is a perfect metaphor for life.

“It references the TV game show of the same name, in which contestants would attempt to guess products and prices, culminating in a frenetic shopping spree where the winner would have the most expensive ‘stuff’ in their shopping carts.

“It’s a perfect metaphor for everyday life.”

The art in the show, however, mixes metaphors. Frost picks the ephemera of 21st century life and sprays and prints images on top. He borrows from graffiti, collage, photo-realism and sign-writing. His style is billed best on his website: “kaleidoscopic Pop Art”.

“In my earlier work I was hand-painting logos and packaging motifs into my backgrounds, but now I’ve simplified and am painting directly onto actual packages I've sourced from different places. “It has more power when I’m taking the physical objects of advertising and then adding to them. It’s also a form of ‘recycling’, so these paintings may someday save the world.”

Supermarket Sweep, opening August 1 at No Walls Gallery, features reclaimed McDonald’s packaging with tearful graphic novel style faces over the top, a skull printed over a Monopoly board and cartoon temptresses with heads in hands on Valium packets.

“I’m always picking up new packages wherever I go,” writes Frost about how he sources and selects packaging to work on.

“I have friends from around the world who send me stuff – especially the pharmaceutical packages.

“I’ve got boxes and boxes of ‘boxes’ in my studio, so I’m constantly foraging through them to find something that will inspire a new direction.”

Frost’s work is often controversial. Some commentators called him sick after he faked his own death for Ben Frost Is Dead.

One viewer slashed his 2000 work, Where Do You Want To Go Today, and police threatened to close down every exhibition and venue they visited.

A TV debate followed the release of White Children Playing: Late 1900's, which depicted children using drugs.

He’s commenting on the role of the media and advertising, questioning what we should believe.

For Supermarket Sweep, he juxtaposes images of horror or sexuality with children’s sweets or cute cartoon characters on Viagra packets to to create “a constant rollercoaster ride of attraction vs. repulsion”.

“My goal is for people to look twice at the consumerist leftovers they buy and discard every day.

“I’m aiming to recontextualize the advertising which is displayed on the packages we see on our supermarket shelves – sometimes into things of beauty, but more often to reflect the ‘ugliness’ that is really being projected to us by advertisers.”

The 50 painted packages in Supermarket Sweep – all framed and on the walls – will be much like an art supermarket, he explains, “or supermarkART if you like.”

 

Supermarket Sweep No Walls Gallery, Church Street, Brighton, until August 23

Free, open Tuesday to Saturday, noon to 6pm. Call 01273 324432.