A trademark of Ronnie van Hout’s art is his way of casting himself in multiple roles, whether in low-budget videos or as the face attached to sculptural figures ranging from pajama-clad adolescent boys to a giant anthropomorphic hand named Quasi, 2016—short for Quasimodo. When installed on the roof of City Gallery Wellington in 2019, Quasi provoked the BBC headline ‘NIGHTMARE’ HAND STATUE LOOMS OVER NEW ZEALAND CITY. Van Hout’s scenarios regularly incorporate his own image into representations of social outcasts from film and literature.

The centerpiece of van Hout’s latest Sydney show, “Unwelcome