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... Since 1998, Darren Sylvester has consistently couched his often interconnected themes - including the fallibility of relationships, urban alienation, the passing of time, mortality - within large-scale, narrative-driven photographic images of devastating clarity. Resembling lyrics from songs, the titles of these works act as a corrective coda to the apparent innocuousness or ambiguity of many of these vignettes of contemporary life. (After all, Sylvester, whose work is at every level highly directed and directive, doesn't like to leave anything to chance.) Thus, although the work is almost invariably about falling apart (to use Sylvester's expression), it is of paramount importance to the artist that this emotional disintegration is perfectly contained in compositions of cool precision, in which every detail has been considered, storyboarded, choreographed.

Frequently achieving an aphoristic quality (Don't substitute a life to satisfy mine, 2007) the evocative titles are culled from his short stories - although this is an aspect of his practice he is now attempting to short-circuit - which are pithy first-person narratives of the everyday about people, who work in ordinary jobs. From its conception a photographic image might take six months to realise; sketching the ideas on paper, making test shots, constructing the set with the help of an assistant, casting friends or professional models, selecting wardrobe, props, hair and make-up. (He averages around five images each year and is not interested in working in series)...

The prominent placement of branded products in many of his works has tended to be misinterpreted by some commentators as a critique of consumer culture. Interestingly it is Sylvester's strategy to use the highly recognisable iconography of branded items - a can of Tab, a box of Cheerios or KFC for example - as everyday props, but also more unusually to confer a sense of universality on his fastidiously constructed tableaux. In an interview in 2007, Sylvester stated that the point he is making [in works such as If all we have is each other, that's OK, 2003] is that: 'This is what people actually do ... Anyone who thinks my work is a critique of consumerism is out of step with the real world.'...

Sylvester is not averse to self-portraiture and has consistently cast himself in his photographic images and video works - notably the eccentric, video masquerade You should let go of a dying relationship, 2006. Something of an aberration within his oeuvre,  it anticipates his emergence this year as a songwriter and solo performer, playing a number of gigs in public venues. In dual videos without soundtracks, Sylvester emulates the understated, yet stylised video clip of David Bowie's Heroes (1977) and the infinitely more challenging Wuthering Heights (1978) performed by Kate Bush. Sylvester is no dancer and the piece required intensive study of the film clips, followed by exhaustive rehearsals of the choreography; a faithful reproduction of the Wuthering Heights performance necessitated cross-dressing, as well as impersonating the extravagant hand gestures and dance moves of the exuberant Bush. A testament to Sylvester's perseverance, it is a funny, surprising and affecting work that offers a counterpoint to the polished stasis of his photographic images...

This article appears in excerpted form. You can read the entire article in Art & Australia's Summer 2008 issue.