Art seen: different lives in paint, print... and popcorn

Erin Driessen takes a look at the latest exhibitions around Dunedin

"Norfolk House Realist Invitational," Various Artists (The Artist's Room)

The Norfolk House Realist Invitational, now on display at the Artist's Room, exhibits works by artists from around the country, including John Toomer, Karen Baddock, Colin Wheeler, Jane Crisp and Matt Guild.

Selected New Zealand artists are invited to submit two works each.

Towards the end of the exhibition a viewers' choice award is given to one artist, decided by a public vote.

Steve Harris' Highland Tent is bright, the tent's red and white stripes luminous against the purple sky.

There is also a sense of the ominous as a fire burns in the foreground.

Stephen Martyn Welch exhibits edgy works, including My Own Game, a snapshot of simultaneous pleasure and pain.

Olav Nielsen's prints are wonderfully textured.

He has framed the original printer's plate and the mezzotint together in each work.

Uncovered depicts a person laying bricks, a fitting image of piecing things together.

Seclusion, by Sheryl McCammon shimmers.

The water is painted in matte acrylic with such skill it takes on a glossy look.

Most remarkable are the stylistic differences between artists.

"Realism" here means more than "photographic" or "lifelike" and barely serves as a label to group these works together.

What is real is a sense of experience, of many different lives documented in paint and print.

"Sea Blue & Night Sky," Fiona Stirling (Rocda Gallery)

A sense of time and artistic progression are immediately apparent upon viewing Fiona Stirling's exhibition "Sea Blue & Night Sky", showing at Rocda Gallery.

Stirling, a Dunedin artist, displays work created over a two-year period.

Subject matter is the sea and the sky, with different national landscapes depicted in between: Farewell Spit, Arthur Range, Hauraki Gulf and Port Otago.

The earlier "Sea Blue" works are all of a lighter, aqua blue, whereas the later "Night Sky" paintings are almost black and depict constellations and galaxies in their true configurations.

In the "Twilight" works we see her primary interest begin to change from a focus on the sea to that of the sky and stars.

Crux Over Blue Hills and Orion Over Seaward Kaikouras are large, major works.

Stirling has painted many layers of blues and blacks in acrylic then applied matte varnish to achieve the right colours and finish.

This creates a lovely effect as when the paintings are viewed from far back, they appear smooth and glowing, but up close retain their painterly strokes and thickness.

Venus Over Flagstaff shows Venus floating in twilight.

Stirling has recalled that when going out to get the milk which had just been delivered in the evening, she would look up at the sky.

These works encourage us all to do so.

"Sweet As," Madeleine Child (Dunedin Public Art Gallery)

Madeleine Child's installation Sweet As, now showing at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, is fun to walk into, and it just gets better.

Bubble wrap completely covers the floor.

A lolly-pink shopping cart sits on one side of the room.

The wall facing the Octagon is covered in oversized bright and golden ceramic nuggets of popcorn.

A mirror ball spins above, casting flecks of light which are reflected in the large window and scattered around the walls.

Child is a recent co-joint winner of the Portage Award, New Zealand's premier ceramics prize, and it is easy to see why.

Not only are her bits of popcorn delightfully hand-crafted and painted, they are contemporary pieces of art.

Their placement on the wall, more clustered at one end and more widely dispersed at the other, gives the effect of them having escaped from the popcorn maker.

The installation has been on display for nearly two weeks, so most of the bubble wrap is already popped.

This, however, takes nothing from the sound effects.

The bubble wrap still crunches underfoot, and if it no longer sounds like popping, it is now the sound of popcorn being munched.

Child has created a bright, fun and modern installation.

The only problem? The temptation to touch is strong as.