David Jarvis Curno: I, Time, Am All These
23 April, 2013 - 2 June, 2013
Master Bedroom
David Jarvis Curno, Colours of Endangerment: Winged Vertebrae (2012), watercolour on paper
I, Time, Am All These is a selection of works by David Jarvis Curno, developed from 2009 to 2012, during his Batchelor of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts. During 2012, a number of these works were selected as finalists in various art awards, including the Gallipoli Club Art Awards (Sydney), the Eden Art School Awards (Auckland), The Lola Anne Tunbridge Watercolour Scholarship (Auckland) and the Wallace Art Awards.
‘I, Time, Am All These’, is a line from the Allen Curnow poem Time. Though the works cover a range of concepts and use a variety of media,Curno says 'it’s time that’s the common denominator and time that gives all art relevance'.
During his degree, Curno discovered a new way of working after the unexpected loss of his strong and vibrant sister Kate. Searching for an appropriate medium to decorate her cardboard coffin, Curno came across an equally strong and vibrant watercolour pigment, in Kate’s beloved city, Sydney. This material subsequently became the mainstay medium for the majority of Curno’s works and is a gesture to Kate’s lasting legacy of vibrancy.
The period of Curno’s degree was also marked by the passing of his mother. These deep, personal losses are also evidenced more broadly in Curno’s work through references to extinction and endangerment.
David Jarvis was born in Dunedin in 1963, the youngest of 5 children. Early exposure to New Zealand contemporary art came in the form of neighbour Muru Walters, along with his contemporaries Ralph Hotere, Clive Artiledge and Hone Tuwhare. While in secondary school, Jarvis added his mother’s maiden name ‘Curno’ to his own, in an attempt to keep alive a name that was close to extinction in New Zealand. Since 1994, Curno has exhibited predominantly in the South Island.