Alas Alas

The works in Alas Alas greet the viewer with a Greek chorus of dismay. Todd Atticus’ practice has always travestied the glossy commercial patina of modern life, and with this exhibition, a sequel to 2025’s Sala Alas, he continues to explores the dark side of ubiquity. What to say to the world’s insatiable appetite for more? These works answer in one urgent voice: ALAS. 

Alas Alas continues to chart the present chapter of Atticus’ blue period, which began in 2021. A colour and a sign of the times, blue anchors these works in time, place, and aesthetic.

The obsessive repetition of the word ‘alas’ and the cooly resonant aquamarine blue have become something of a cathexis for Atticus. But upon closer inspection of these multimodal works, the restricted palette and vocabulary expands beyond lament, to anger, resignation, absurdity – even grit.

Together, these paintings and sculptures are a mesmerising, nightmarish picture of fixation and release. This exhibition is an exorcism in public – a graphic climax – that asks us to consider our response to horror, mishap, disaster and evil.

Alas Alas is open 10am - 4pm daily and runs until July 25th at the Tasman Building, 16-22 Anzac Avenue, Auckland.