Assembled Image
19 March, 2013 - 28 April, 2013
Photography Gallery
Len Lye, ‘Self-portrait (with night tree)’ (1947), Gelatine, silver, photogram
This exhibition is comprised of mixed media photographic works from the Collection that incorporate collage, photogram, or the juxtaposition of found images. The majority of these works were created within the last ten years.
Len Lye’s Self-portrait (with night tree), 1947, provides a historical framework for the exhibition and foreshadows the more recent works. The artists represented here illustrate the board scope of contemporary photographic practice in New Zealand. As with Lye, they are interested in experimenting with the medium of photography itself, rather than using photography as a form of observation; these artists are concerned with found imagery and materials which are assembled in order to create a new composite image – one that often questions or brings forth new considerations.
Self-portrait (with night tree) by Len Lye is from a series that Lye produced soon after World War II, which included well-known artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Joan Miró and Le Corbusier. The photograms or ‘shadowgraphs’ were created by placing the sitter between a light source and a sheet of photographic paper. A silhouette was formed on the paper as a result. Lye included other elements in these works, which relate to the sitter and add further meanings. Lye transferred the outline of a reel of film alongside the silhouette of his face in this self-portrait – a clear reference to his film-producing practice. Less clear is a somewhat surreal image that Lye transposed upon his silhouetted face. Its positioning alludes to brain space. This notion is reinforced by long tubular lines with thin branches, suggestive of blood vessels and brain matter.
Eve Armstrong, Making Arrangements (Study 9) (2011), Ceramic tiles, colour photographs, adhesive, vinyl, wood, paper
Two concurrent articles can be regarded as complimentary to this exhibition: 'Image & Character: Jacqueline Fraser at Michael Lett Gallery' by Alex Davidson, pp.52-56, Art New Zealand (Autumn 2013) and 'Paper The World Over' by Sue Gardiner, pp.102-107, Art News New Zealand (Autumn 2013).