Samantha McKegg reviews works by Diana Smillie, Michael Harrison, and Matthew Galloway.
Dianna Smillie is known for well-worked and dark paintings that use historical and mythical symbols of animals to explore the human psyche.
Now on at Mint Gallery, 12 Capricci features Smillie's work with ink and a feather quill to produce a series of automatic drawings. Smillie writes in the exhibition text that the drawings were ‘‘done at speed, and with no prior mental image of what figures were going to populate them''.
Smillie embraces the flexibility and speed of the drawing style and makes quick, sketched lines to subconsciously render human and animal hybrids. Despite the gestural qualities of this style of drawing with smeared and spattered ink, Smillie's technical talent and accuracy in drawing animal and human forms makes quite realistic-looking figures.
Bulls, cats and horses are some of the creatures seen in these works and it is tempting to connect these animals to the artist's earlier series that explored specific areas of the human condition. However, Smillie suggests that interpretation is entirely up to the viewer.
These drawings show the artist's physical movement through a gestural style but also have a strong sense of immediacy and improvisation. It is refreshing to see such an uncontrived exploration of drawing.
Brett McDowell is currently exhibiting a series of modest paintings by Michael Harrison.
‘‘Realisation is Endless'' is a group of simplistic, washed out black acrylic works depicting cats with sentimental phrases suggestive of romantic relationships.
Across nine works, titles such as I knew you liked me, I want to see you and I think this is a mistake accompany cats that are rendered with sure, clean lines. The simplistic style and combination of text is reminiscent of a comic strip.
In this series, Harrison experiments with composition and tonality. Imagery is repeated with altered text and the same paint makes a number of cats in different shades of grey. D
ated from 2001, the paintings are like preparatory sketches that would map out compositions and ideas for a more detailed work. However, this series has a certain austere intent that is surprising when considering other work by the artist from this time period are typically more worked and use colour.
The rudimentary nature of the works is ultimately part of the appeal and methods identified in this series can be seen in Harrison's later lauded works. As stand-alone pieces these paintings also have a certain charm as sincere depictions of human relationships.
Matthew Galloway explores the geopolitical implications of international shipping in ‘‘The Ground Swallows You''.
From his Portobello home, Galloway observed the carrier ship Josco Suzhou docked in Dunedin. Tracking the ship's movements, he realised it was unloading rock phosphate from the western Sahara - a disputed territory occupied by Morocco since 1976.
The rock phosphate is treated to produce superphosphate fertiliser. Galloway combines documents, interviews, written text and graphic imagery to explore the complex geopolitical factors at play in this transaction. This investigation culminates in a publication, which sits at the centre of the exhibition stacked on a large pallet.
Designs from the publication are reproduced as large wall-mounted prints. The ruminative images combine symbols of groups involved in the transaction, both commercial and political.
A physical symbol of import and export are three oil drums filled with materials of the trade activity: murky water from Otago Harbour, rock phosphate from western Sahara and grey phosphate fertiliser.
Galloway raises questions of New Zealand's indirect participation in the territorial disputes of the western Sahara. The exhibition also raises broader issues of what is justifiable activity for a modern country wishing to retain healthy global economic standing.
-By Samantha McKegg
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