''Picture/Poem'', Cilla McQueen and Joanna Margaret Paul (Hocken Library)
The Hocken Library has brought together painter Joanna Margaret Paul and award-winning poet Cilla McQueen for ''Picture/Poem'', in an exhibition that explores the commonalities, interchange and friendship between the two artists.
While working predominantly in different mediums, both Paul and McQueen's work shows an obvious appreciation for the interplay between words and images, and each woman could be described as ''interdisciplinary''.
The exhibition features many works, ranging from poems, books, paintings and sketches to installations.
The works focus on local landmarks and quiet domestic imagery, as these themes were part of a wider conceptual movement for both artists.
Paul's Untitled (The stillness of the rose ...), is a series of seven letter-sized pencil and watercolour drawings, each a separate illustration of a table-top.
The fragile, tentative table adornments are framed with a poem written in a D'Nealian-like handwriting.
The juxtaposition between image and words emphasises the aesthetic link between the two.
A charming touch worth noting were two ink self-portraits of the artists.
Stylistically dissimilar but united by their uncontrived lines and forms, they both acknowledge the simplicity of this medium.
''swfer'', Luke Munn (Blue Oyster Art Project Space)
A new exhibition at the Blue Oyster explores the commercial aesthetics and physical realities of the online world.
Luke Munn has created and coded a transmedia exhibition that exists within the physical gallery space and in the online world through installation, web-based and mobile app works.
In the main gallery a web page titled Code Swishing is projected on the wall.
The page is a slideshow of acronyms that alternate between computer jargon and online chatspeak, for example ''SWF'' the file extension for a shockwave flash video is followed by ''SWM'' a chat-term for single white male.
Munn plays with the physicality of digital interfaces by presenting a work that is hosted online in the gallery space.
He consequently makes the gallery a computer interface.
Also online is Munn's web application iChat, a simulated chatroom. The app replicates the online aesthetic of teen chatrooms, but also represents the potential dangers of the online world.
In the backroom of the gallery, Munn has placed a CD drive on a central plinth, a reminder of the hardware that hosts the world wide web, which is typically envisioned as an ethereal cloud.
The digital and online space often evokes images of futuristic technologies; Munn alternatively uses digital technology to explore some of the gritty realities behind the online world.
''Tipping Point'', Hannah Kidd (Milford Galleries Dunedin)
Hannah Kidd has created a natural history display out of steel rods and corrugated iron in an exhibition that reflects on species extinction and the human guilt that goes along with it.
The display centres on a sculpted visitor, Captain Planet, a nude figure who raises his hands in disbelief, confusion and amazement.
He beholds the 11 bird sculptures mounted around the room, each featuring a currently endangered species.
The birds resemble taxidermy animals from a museum, anatomical but imbued with life in an attempt to represent the animals as they are in nature.
Captain Planet, named for the cartoon environmentalist hero, is now past his prime, with grey hair and a sagging body. He becomes a metaphor for the future, lamenting inaction of the present.
Kidd's art practice serves the ethos of the exhibition well.
The heavy metal sculptures could only be forged by human hands, a notion that mirrors the responsibility of human actions on the demise or preservation of these species.
Kidd has previously explored more humorous and character-driven narratives in her work, so it is particularly interesting to see her transpose her practice to a more critical context.
While the present exhibition carries a heavier tone, she still retains an undeniable charm in each animal, a feature that makes her work enduringly likeable.
by Samantha McKegg
