Neil Dawson sculptures

Press, 2 November 1984, Page 21

Neil Dawson sculptures

Neil Dawson: Sculpture at the Brooke/Gifford Gallery, until November 9. Reviewed by John Burrell. It is about 2% years since Neil Dawson last presented an exhibition in Christchurch, and because of the standards that this artist has set in the past, public expectations of this show will be high. Most Christchurch art

lovers will remember “Echo,” the three-dimen-sional line drawing of a building which Mr Dawson installed above the main courtyard of the Arts Centre in 1981. This work contained perspective which reversed itself as the viewer moved around it. The most successful of the seven works, all called “Rock Constructions,” in this show continue with this theme of how our perception of volume and distance is affected by qualities of tone, texture, and line.

The “rocks” are mainly made of painted mesh or folded metal, ahd are suspended above eye level in the smaller gallery of the Brooke/ ifford. They almost all feature boulder-like forms, and allude to the large public sculpture Mr Dawson has recently completed for the Bank of New Zealand building in Wellington. Some of the constructions here are interesting objects in their own right, but they disappoint because they do not go beyond the artist’s pleasure in manipulating his materials. They remain curious contradictions of mass rendered insubstantial, but they change only predictably as the gallery visitor moves around them.

The highlights of this exhibition use contrasts of tone that in nature are caused by light hitting the sides of solid objects. One

work of beaten copper is in a concave shape that appears to be a hollow ring when light hits an inside surface from one side. It does not appear as convex as one might expect. Two other sculptures use folded mesh that has been sprayed in contrasting tones on the inner and outer sides, and joined together to made a rock form. The variations in tonal value between the inside back areas and the outside front surfaces create subtle tensions and surprises, so that the “rocks” become solid, and then dematerialize as the viewers position is changed.

Two works of welded and folded corrugated iron use flourescent paint which is hard to see directly as it is on the surfaces facing the wall, not the viewer. The walls behind the sculptures glow vividly. In one of these, the difference be-

tween the inner painted surface and its orange reflection is hard to discern, creating an atmospheric mist inside the metal shell. At times Mr Dawson seems more preoccupied with formal and descriptive concerns in how to manipulate his materials for aesthetic reasons, rather than as an investigation of perceptual problems. Some works do not bear up to repeated scrutiny, occasionally because of shoddy craftsmanship, but also because of the limitations of the subject matter as a possible metaphor, dr that they are too predictable.

Even though this show lacks the sparkle and consistency that one might expect from an artist of Mr Dawson’s calibre, the four or five items that stand up to repeated viewing make it worthy of a detailed examination.