‘Canterbury Belles’

Press, 7 September 1989, Page 14

‘Canterbury Belles’

“Canterbury Belles.” Margaret Dawson, Mary Kay and Julia Morison at the Robert McDougall Art Annex until September 11. Reviewed by Pat Unger. Julia Morison’s “Quiddities I-X,” at the McDougall Annex, show that she is New Zealand’s top logo laureate. And the most obscurely academic. As poetic seer or interpreter of art through symbol and sign she has no equal. "Quiddities I-X" are based on the idea that today’s reality has been diminished by a superabundance of photography (television, film, photocopy, etc.) and their substitute emotion. This makes us into image — or phantom — consumers, not observers of, or partakers in, life’s “real” things, an illusory condition that can be summed up in “All life is merchandise; I know merchandise, therefore I know life.” This series of 10 boxed, back-lit photographic works is an advertiser’s dream. A complex array of glittering objects, taken from some imaginary Art/Design Expo, beckons the viewer with its avail-

ability. Each box is centred by the artist’s shaven head, divided and marked with Roman numerals from one to 10. Above each top, frontal or side profile is a logo styled after geometric shapes, yin-yangs, crosses and other codes. Tarot cards, meat and baking goods, flowers, beads, make-up, orthotic aids, base and precious metals, along with categories such as religion, ornamentation, hermaphrodism and pathology are given sparkling visual presence. They. symbolise the fall of woman from the ability to know reality to the receiver of graven images and commodities. Previous works, “Golem” and “Vademecum” (which presented “self” as discovered through alchemical and metaphysical states related to lead, blood, mercury, gold, transparency, etc.) are further keys to unlock these esoteric but impressive works. Neither Margaret Dawson’s nor Mary Kay’s work carry the same conviction.

In large colour photographs, Dawson role-plays a variety of sit-coms. Fire

eater, beached and bleeding whale, adjudicator of historical artefacts and sword-swallower are all clothed in milk-bottle tops and given names of common flowers. But meaning of and indication on how to read the work is kept so private that the viewer remains uninvolved. Mary Kay uses a rub-bing-chemical technique to release media-print images on to paper. She enhances them with a graphic-design style of painted precision. Centred on food, they illustrate how men, as meaty sires, dream of women as juicy dishes. With stacks of tart, crumpet, cream-puff and a bit on the side, Kay updates Mrs Beaton’s instructions on how to run the master’s household (and his appetite) with contemporary feminist flavour. An introduction by Shona Smith, with its many quotes from Friedrich Nietzsche;, Oscar Wilde and Roland Barthes, reads more like open university courses in literature and sociology than art. It makes sure that ideas about “commodification” are kept elite, as ever.