Paintings on Aramoana show strong feeling

Press, 19 October 1982, Page 13

Paintings on Aramoana show strong feeling

“Towards Aramoana.” “Black Window” paintings by Ralph Hotere, at the Brooke/ Gifford Gallery, until October 29. Reviewed by John Hurrell. Sharp divisions in the community over the Aramoana smelter are very much in reality in the Dunedin area today, even though such intensity of feeling does not appear to be prevalent nationally. The depth of Ralph Hotere’s public opposition to the smelter was evident in his last exhibition of “corrugated iron" paintings, held at the Brooke/Gifford Gallery two years ago. Ecological desecration and Maori sensitivity to land ownership are still central issues in these recent, smaller, more conventional paintings. All twelve “Black Windows” are set in unpainted wooden window frames with the handles facing inwards. The title of the exhibition

refers to the view the artist has looking out of his studio window, up Otago Harbour towards the smelter site near the Heads. Featured in most of the works is the cross motif, suggesting in many the mast of a foreign ship especially when it appears with two lines of green and red navigation lights. Many have a horizon line drawn near the top, with the Aramoana site indicated by a strip of symbolic red or white. Others use flagpole images, referring to colonial imperialism. In a manner that is typical of Mr Hotere’s work, black and tonally-related colours are used to give the lightervalued reds, whites and greens glowing qualities which border on the overtly decorative. The techniques vary from the spraying and drawing of lacquer and the dripping of metallic paint to the gestural scumbling of acrylic and oil.

One even incorporates a large square of burnished aluminium, containing angry striations and "aluminpolitik” written on it in reversed letters. Mr Hotere is a master at making emotionally loaded yet attractive paintings, formally inventive in their combinations of surface qualities and compositional variations. However, problems arise when some painted sign systems, such as stenciled blocks of letters and numbers or dates in a calendar, are used for formal reasons. They look good but are obscure in literal content. When used in combination with some.very specific linguistic references to industrial processes and Maori place names, these devices interfere with the political concerns of the work and impede, rather than aid, communication.