Diverse representation of Canterbury artists

Press, 26 September 1979, Page 32

Diverse representation of Canterbury artists

New Canterbury Contemporaries. Robert McDougall Art Gallery, until October 10. Reviewed by Michael Thomas. An opportunity to see what Christchurch artists are doing is offered by the Robert McDougall Art Gallery in the New Canterbury Contemporaries Exhibition which shows recent works by 15 photographers, print makers, sculptors, and painters.

who is above them, make the photographers the most exciting group of exhibitors matched for their technical excellence by the two printmakers Michael Reed and Harvey Taylor. Both these artists show etchings, Mr Reed being concerned with the interpla. of tape and pole, and Harvey Taylor with the repetition of images as in a film sequence. His prints are entitled “Now Showing” and depict subjects of the past gently tinted with colour forming a regular pattern as they repeat across the paper. A lively, almost theatric a 1 three-dimensional, piece by Simon Allison consisting of a black hat placed on a stand before a white doorway behind which a naked light shines is the most dramatic and unusual exhibit. It is pictorial rather than sculptural, being ineffective when viewed from anywhere except the front. Neil Dawson shows some of his small house constructions and Bing Dawe displays a friendly timber and thong “Boat Piece” consisting of three interrelated sculptures which evoke a strong atmosphere of boats, especially the pitch-smelling “rigging.” This complicated work is rather cluttered but nevertheless successful because of its w'armth and technical surprises; it makes a strong contrast to the very concise drawings of lettering from brochures by Graham Snowden. These are well executed but the foreshortened letters look somewhat lonely against the large expanse of white paper which surrounds them. They would be more exciting on a grand scale. Bruce Robinson shows four black-and-white

In spite of the fact that every artist represented has studied at the School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, the aims of each exhibitor are very diverse and range from the familiar Canterbury “regionalist” landscapes of Pauline Trengrove to the sexual film-sequence photographs by Paul Johns entitled, appropriately “Censored.” Sporting a red-lettered label saying “Censored” placed tantalisingly under the picture glass but over the crucial part of the two figures Paul Johns cleverly combines photographic imagery, a label, and the picture glass to make a work of art. The three photographs skate near the brink of indecency but remain safe because of the paradoxical and witty use of censorship which masks the “fact” but at the same time titillates human curiosity. The camera is used for a different purpose by Murray Hedwig whose exquisitely precise colour prints of the patterns and textures of rocks and pools have a rare clarity. Four unusual portraits by Glen Jowitt, which show people lying in a circle with their heads together facing skywards to ; wards the photographer

striped angular reliefs which relate to drawings exhibited at the C.S.A. recently. While these are sensitively placed on the gallery walls it is difficult to see exactly what the stripes and shapes do except look pretty. Other painters — John Hurreil, Mark de la Mare, and Peter Wolden — exhibit two works each. As with most of the other artists, this is too few to convey a strong impression of their concerns, and the exhibition as a whole seems rather sparse because of the generous space given to each exhibitor.