Car as cult object

Press, 12 September 1987, Page 37

Car as cult object

“Citroen Series,” photographs by Bill Culbert, at the Robert McDougall Galery. Reviewed by Penny Orme.

Bill Culbert studied at the Canterbury School of Fine Art in the mid-1950s — he was a contemporary of Fht Hanly — and was part of the group of students who lived at 22 Armagh Street. After gradiation he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art and has remiined in Britain except for a brief sojourn at Canterbury University on a sit-month teaching fellowiiip in 1981. Oier the years he has abandoned painting to concentrate on his interet in the creation of light using bulbs and neon His work has received some recognition and he has exhibited at major London galleries. THs series of black-and-Miite photographs has been created over mon than 10 years and explores the "Deux Chevaux” a small Citroen. This economical two horst-power car was once

übiquitous in France. Culbert has recorded it in various environments, mostly observed during his holidays in Provence.

The era of this amazingly distinctive little car is virtually over — it is no longer being manufactured — so this series of photographs could well have been created both as a celebration and as a visual memorial.

The many depictions include a screen-printed model on a young woman’s T-shirt which became an excuse for a sensitive and refined portrait. Other “Deux Chevaux” images are of the abandoned, rusting and derelict. One is even presented upside down as though floating in space. Photography is an artform that often demands the viewer make a special effort. The endless media use of black and white photography to convey flat, factual information tends to blunt the perception.

Culbert, however, uses photography to explore a theme through a range of

attitudes from whimsical and playful to sensitive and acutely observant. These attitudes provide comments on the uses and effects obtained from the mundane little machine that has become almost a cult object. Even the chocks under the wheels — the car has no handbrake — are perceived by the artist as art-forms in "Sculpture I” and “Sculpture II.”

The photographer’s eye also explores the formal possibilities including such aspects as composition, space, texture, surface, reflection and light and shadow.

New Zealand has a rather inconsistent record in the recognition, collection and exposure given to its expatriate artists. Certainly maintaining links gives the art world here a broader frame of reference and prevents insularity.

Exhibitions such as this can only be beneficial in keeping the channels of communication open.