Sullivan+Strumpf Sydney is delighted to present, Out of Life, an exhibition of new work by Darren Sylvester. Combining references to Hollywood, magic, mortality and Microsoft,the exhibition was inspired by the purchase of an unidentified 1970s science fiction space suit. Out of Life continues Sylvester's ongoing interest in authenticity, desire and death; subjects he examines through an off-beat narrative borne out of a lost moment of pop-culture.

Last year Sylvester purchased a 1970s-style science fiction space suit from an auction house sale of old costumes from Hollywood films and TV shows. Catalogued with no known provenance, the costume was rendered relatively worthless. The only clue to its history was the name, Stacey, hand-written on a tag on the inside. Was Stacey the actor's name or a TV character? In Out of Life, Sylvester uses her long-forgotten costume to resurrect Stacey in two large-format film photographs; trapped in character forever inside a B-Grade film set. Bored and melancholy, Stacey waits for her scene to be called, a battle to begin, for love to arrive – or somehow, to go home. Left all alone in this make-believe universe, Stacey holds a feeling relatable to everyone – being all out of life.

The End is a double-panelled photograph which mimics the end-titles of Universal Pictures films. Sylvester produced a custom-made balloon to represent the Earth and appropriated the text from the end screen of the 1980s arcade game ‘Missile Command’. 'The End' replaces the ubiquitous ‘Game Over’ creating a sense of finality and reinforcing that there is no home to which to return.

Presented on a bed of red sand, a pair of mirrored-steel Ouija boards imply a mystic connection to the past. Perhaps best known via the Parker Bros board game or as a horror film trope, here, the mirrored surfaces of the Ouija suggest power generated through material make-up.

Reflecting on the distance between space and time, Sylvester designed each board with Stacey in mind. Dingbat Ouija, is made entirely using the pre-emoji graphics of selected Dingbat fonts introduced by Microsoft in all versions of Windows, making it one of the most universal languages on Earth. The second is based on the packaging design of Lucky Charms an American breakfast cereal. Each box of Lucky Charms contains a number of marshmallow ‘charms’ – half-moons, shooting stars, four leaf clovers, horseshoes and diamonds – that are said to bring good luck.

Suggesting that all new beginnings can be bought in this hyper-consumer culture, Sylvester probes the contemporary context in IKEA Sunrise, an image of a studio-built ocean illuminated by dry ice and an IKEA ‘Fado’ lamp.