Art seen: Installation bewildering

James Dignan looks at the latest exhibitions in Dunedin.

"Sleeping", Ben Buchanan (Dunedin Public Art Gallery)

Ben Buchanan has produced an equally bewildering assemblage at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

As with Harris' work, the initial reaction is negative, but prolonged exposure to the work produces a more positive effect.

Buchanan has taken as his starting point the idea that in the dream state, information from the waking world is processed and filed in a seemingly arbitrary manner, producing images that have no, or at best, a tenuous symbolic association with daily life.

By drawing on a wide range of influences ranging from computer art through native American patterns to pseudo-religious symbolism, he has produced an installation which is simultaneously garish and calming.

A series of painted stones and four rectangular panels occupy much of the gallery space, but the eye is repeatedly drawn to the concentric pixel pattern displayed on the gallery's longest wall.

This piece shimmers like the rising sun over the stones, yet is simultaneously simplistic.

An analogy can be drawn between the sun patterns rendered in this ancient/modern way and new-age spiritualities, yet the clearly hand-painted and all-too-human nature of the work makes it abundantly clear that it is human skill, not soul and deity, that is responsible for the work.

"The untitled", Jeffrey Harris (Brett McDowell Gallery)

Jeffrey Harris is a conundrum.

At first glance, most of the pieces in his current exhibition at the Brett McDowell gallery appear as little more than childish scrawls, hastily painted in black on white.

The instant response of "I could do better than that" comes readily to mind.

Yet beyond this immediate reaction, it is clear that there is distinct method in the seeming madness of Harris's often diverse and ecumenical art.

As is always the case with art, the trick is knowing what needs to be done with a piece and knowing when to stop.

If a piece is intended to remain in a seemingly unfinished state, finishing it will only ruin the work.

Such is the case here.

The artist has in these works sought inspiration from street art and from artists ranging from Munch to Basquiat, producing a series of sinister faces and cartoons.

There is a strong dynamic in many of the pieces, which seem to be ready to move the moment you stop looking at them.

The title of the exhibition continues this theme of nameless threat - the works are untitled, but the name "The untitled" in itself becomes an identity which gives these goonish faces added menace.

"Art in law" (Law Faculty, Richardson Building)

The University's Law faculty has launched an interesting experiment by opening its corridors in the campus' Richardson Building as an art space.

The exhibition "Art in law", curated by Prof Peter Stupples, contains some 20 pieces by seven artists.

Pamela Brown continues her Kahloesque portraiture, though her more interesting work on display is a mixed-media mirrored piece.

Among other works are abstract expressionist paintings by Alexandra Kennedy (whose art school exhibition was recently reviewed in this column) and Sue Novell.

Roxanne Zimani has presented several fine portraits on hanging banners, and there are some haunting and disturbingly ambiguous expressionist pieces by Sally-Ann Shepherd.

The standout pieces in the show, though, are a muted and misty interior scene by Maryann Darmody, simply titled Bedrail, and two strong Sarajevo street scenes in faded monochrome by Lynette Taylor.

Unfortunately, the art is not clearly labelled, and hunting for individual pieces in the warren of corridors and stairwells is not an easy task.

However, the works are worth the search.

Please note that the display area - though nominally public - is part of a working environment, so anyone visiting to view the art should respect this and the users of the space.