The Writing's on the Wall
13 March, 2012 - 15 April, 2012
Boardroom
Iain Cheeseman, Ecologist (2011), Plastic, acrylic and enamel spray paint
This exhibition is a selection of artworks, acquired by the Arts Trust over the last 24 months, which incorporate text as a key feature. The seven artists who are represented can be considered as either emerging, mid-career or established practitioners.
Virginia King, one of the established artists in the exhibition, has a work entitled Cradle of Life 2010 presenting this phrase in two forms. There is a word string (large red painted wooden letters strung together with thick twine) hung vertically beginning with the letter C, accompanied by a small photograph. The poignancy of this work is realized in the photographic print, showing the same phrase string afloat in still tidal water. This image of the work in situ outlines a real environmental consciousness –water as the cradle of life.
There are less serious ramifications examined by Iain Cheeseman and John Reynolds, who take a more playful approach with text. The resulting works clearly show Cheeseman as sculptor and Reynolds as painter. Cheeseman’s works on display are of nominal words, which represent a social-political position. An example is Cheeseman’s Ecologist 2011, made out of welded plastic, coloured brightly with acrylic and enamel spray paint. Ecologist juts about 30cm out of the wall from two points, with this word framed by a mountain-scape. This results in the doubling of the word and shape in shadow form on the wall. Cheeseman’s artist’s statement on the FHE Gallery website provides a good background about this series: 'They are…schematics, appearing as three-dimensional drawings that may offer a pathway from one place to another, or from one word to another shaped through personal association and recollection'.
Virginia King, Cradle of Life (Phot)
John Reynolds can be considered as the less serious and more painterly of the seven artists. One Hand Read (Out Takes) 2009 comprises 15 small 100mm square canvases. Each canvas is brightly painted in a background colour, with humorous phrases such as ‘solitary fiddling’ written with a silver marker. A contextual understanding of the artist’s practice is helpful in this case. Reynolds had a very large scale installation of white 100mm square canvases with silver text in the 2006 biennale of Sydney (Zones of Contact). Cloud, comprising of 7000 small canvases, was created in dedication to Reynolds' father who died a year earlier, showing Reynolds in a more serious mode. One Hand Read (Out Takes) helps us to imagine Reynolds' earlier installation and what it meant for viewers in 2006.
Please view the following website links, referenced here, for further reading:
http://www.art-newzealand.com/Issue122/reynolds.htm
http://www.fhegalleries.com/exhibitions/showArticle.php?file=04_12_needy.xml&year=2011