Display does not hold together"

Press, 12 July 1977, Page 14

Display does not hold together"

Paul Johns, Recent Work, C.S.A. Gallery (until July 15). Reviewer: Michael Thomas. Austere and even “classical” in atmosphere the Paul Johns show in the Mair Gallery of the Canterbury Society of Arts makes a striking contrast to the “Art in the Mail” exhibition also showing on the same floor. An ordered row of small Polaroid photographs lines two walls, and on the third a procession of silk screen printed crosses—in two sizes—is repeated in a continuous sequence.

A television case, a chair and a metronome—all immaculately constructed in timber bolted together —are placed to the left of the gallery to make an “interior” arrangement. The metronome ticks and flashes at the fascinating rate of a heart beat. These objects, and a simple steel pyramid, have been built by the artist as household items. The photographs, usually consisting of four interpretations or four parts of a moving image, seem to

illustrate the transcient of experience. The single, and multiplecross prints, explore the possibilities of repeating an image—even a very simple one such as a cross —until its interpretations have been exhausted. Paul Johns studied filmmaking and sculpture at the School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, and has been working this year with the aid of a grant from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand. In spite of the technical

excellence displayed, the exhibition does not hold together -as a whole. There seems little relationship between the “furniture,” the photographs, and the prints. While the show has been considered as a visual totality, the messages it conveys are diverse. The three dimensional pieces remain “designed objects,” and do not relate to the idea of repeating the same image, as explored in the prints, or to the more interesting “transient” theme of the photographic work.