We have opened a new show featuring
work by Charlotte Andrew, Simon Shepheard, Andrew Missen and Tom Sladden.
Charlotte Andrew has recently
returned from living in the UK and has brought back a series of wonderfully
whimsical material based constructs based around the four seasons.
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| Angel |
We are showing two pieces from her
Summer Series; ‘Angel’ and ‘Belladonna’. Andrew uses clothing- in this
instance clothes discarded by her children……”the family walks in drops its
clothes, walks out and buys some more. Sheds its skin like a cicada……”
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| Belladonna |
‘Angel’ really soars! With a wingspan
of close to a meter, the pale grey cloth requires close scrutiny to locate the
beautifully hand embroidered summer flower motif at its core. This seems to be
deliberately camouflaged so as to draw the viewer right in …..then, back the
viewer steps to take in the whole form again, making the realisation they are
looking at a pair of the artists’ son’s jockey underpants.
Andrew describes the work like
this….”captured and held, the garments deconstructed enough to be pinned flat
like a caught butterfly….” There is a sort of nostalgic element at play here,
but the works are far from sentimental. Raising children in a foreign country
has been all consuming for the artist, but these works offer a view forward not
back. The lightness, sleight of hand and wit employed, reveal someone on the
lookout for new terrain to stake out. What
has been before can now become grist for her creative mill as she moves into
the next phase of her life.
Tom Sladden has produced a rocket.
‘Sure Wealth’ has been on the drawing board for several years and has gone
through many transformations. Here’s what he has to say about it ;
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| Sure Wealth |
“…the first attempt was a series of
bolted together ‘failed’ paintings that
were configured in a vertical fashion to form an Apollo-esque structure. The
idea being the whole is greater than the sum of the parts … I was interested in
proving that success can often be attributed to a series of failures so long as
you keep heading in the right direction.
Over time the work has transformed-
parts were lost or used elsewhere, I introduced the ‘Lady Luck’ fortune reader
component and the whole thing took on more of a ‘product’ like feel. But at its
heart the work is still about scrabbling together a solution from what is at
hand- and aiming high…”
Andrew Missen’s ‘1970’ is blooming
off our east wall. Beautifully constructed from Holden bumpers, ‘1970’ is a bit
like Charlotte Andrews’ pinned butterfly clothing, except in this case it is
like a giant chromed ‘pressed flower’ from an earlier time- come and check it out!
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| 1970 |
Simon Shepheard has sent down from
Auckland two classic ‘Shepheards’ where he has intervened with two different
surfaces both carrying their own history, in ‘Speakers Corner’ and ‘Post
Colonial Swamp’. Simon has recently had a retrospectively styled show at
Auckland’s Bath St Gallery.
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| Speakers Corner |
Come and have a look......
