John Conomos - Video Logic - MCA

As a child, John Conomos was often dealt a familiar warning from his parents. "You'll turn out just like your uncle," his parents would say after catching him daydreaming instead of working in the family business, a milk bar on the outskirts of suburban Sydney. This unknown uncle, famed on the tiny Greek island of
Kisira for being lazy and misanthropic, continued to haunt Conomos for most of his life. "Uncle Manoli was like this spectre hanging over me, shaping my destiny," says the artist.

So powerful was this fictional image of Uncle Manoli that he became the inspiration for Conomos's current body of work. The childhood demon plays out in a digital collage entitled Autumn Song Take 2, part of Video Logic, a group show now on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The watery, dreamlike sequence is both a biographical journey and a personal commentary on the murky confusion of Greek-Australian diaspora the artist experienced as a child. "My parents were hardworking immigrants with very strong morals. They considered their role to be nation-builders."

Their young son felt a sharp conflict between their old-world principles and Sydney's emerging social climate at the time. His aloofness, like Manoli's, was often mistaken for laziness. "My uncle would much rather lie on the hammock and eat watermelon."

As a young Australian of Greek background, Conomos was never far from his roots. The Milk Bar was the centre of the community, playing out like a movie with a revolving cast of characters. Conomos had a key role: local immigrants would seek him out to help read their personal documents. "I had to seesaw between Greek and English and explain these complicated terms with my limited Greek. It was very Kafka-esque."

When childhood lapsed into teenage years, Conomos became sandwiched between his parents' ideals and the blossoming rock‘n'roll culture of the 1950s and early 60s. "It was a very contradictory experience. That was the era of the Bodgies and the Widgies who were full of vitality and sexuality, they were very curious and always trying new things."

To cope with this cultural turmoil, Conomos sought refuge in the artistic world. "Art and cinema were like a raft I would cling to as a way of surviving."

Ironically, surrealist films made by the likes of Luis Bunuel and Alfred Hitchcock helped him to make sense of the chaos, providing a community where he could finally feel at home. "Movies were sort of like religion."

Conomos saw the fluid nature of digital art as a natural fit to piece together scattered memories, both real and imagined. "It's a collage medium. It allows you to cut and paste ideas." Though he is also a writer and a photographer, digital art has always held a particular attraction. "I've been creating this type of art since the 80s. Back then it was really exciting, and it still is."

This kind of forward-thinking flexibility has afforded him longevity in the often-dismissive art world. "Youhave to be like a chameleon to survive, like Madonna did. That's the reality."

Although he remains respectful of his background, today Conomos has shrugged off the feelings of separation and Greek heritage clung to by his parents. "I don't believe in tribes, I'm not nationalistic." Philosophically he adds, "I believe that individuals are the author of their own trajectory."

It's clear from his success in the art world, at odds with his parents' academic aspirations, he has always practiced what he preaches.

Video Logic is on at the MCA until 2 Nov.

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