Songwriter Billy Bragg once described Cindy Sherman's photographic art as ''Blue Velvet America, half glimpsed in the headlights between the trees''. The description could fit as well, if not better, to the elaborately staged dark narratives of Gregory Crewdson's work.
In a series of massive photographs as stage set, Crewdson takes us into a suburban neurotica where the influences of Edward Hopper's paintings and David Lynch's films mix and mingle. The viewer becomes voyeur as we see solitary figures, lost in their own closed worlds. The individuals haunt rather than live in these dimly lit scenes, and their loneliness amidst the multitudes and the meaninglessness of their days pours from the images.
Nearby, a smaller low-key series of semi-abstract works depicts the glow of fireflies, an allegorical statement on the ephemeral light of life and love. A third series, fine essays of monochromatic crumbling and derelict buildings, enhances and echoes the same theme of impermanence.
With the meticulous staging of the inhabited tableaux, and the masterful use of the camera to capture them, it is little surprise that Crewdson's work is held in such high regard. We are lucky to be able to see his images here in Dunedin, and the opportunity should be grabbed to see these powerful, atmospheric works.
As part of Dunedin's October Celtic arts festival, Bellamy's Gallery has been displaying work inspired by Scottish and Irish culture. Three artists, Ron Esplin, Pauline Bellamy, and Chris O'Regan, have joined forces in this exhibition, each evoking their ancestral roots in different ways.
Ron Esplin's contribution to the display is a series of watercolours following the theme of his recent solo exhibition at Green Island. He has produced five fine watercolour townscapes depicting the coastal settlements of Scotland and nicely capturing the soft northern light.
Pauline Bellamy's work is in two parts. Ten of her works are solid monoprints depicting Irish ceili dancers in action. Focus is entirely on the dynamic and composition in these works. Her other five images are a departure for the artist - a series of softly shaded landscapes, again in monotype but here relying on gentle washes of colour to emphasise mood.
Chris O'Regan adds a metallic edge to the exhibition with his etchings, which take the forms of both wall-mounted works and jewellery. These utilise the traditional knotwork and zoomorphic spirals which have been central to Irish art since at least the time of the Book of Kells, and are all finely crafted and attractive works.
Nectar Cafe is the venue for a series of large-scale canvases by Kate Williamson. The six works explore the landscape in a wildly vibrant way, the paint thrown across the canvas in gestural strands which seek to capture the energy of the open countryside.
In her artist's statement, Williamson talks of the symbiosis of intuition and body dynamism in the creation of her art. The scenes represented are an impression of the effect of the forceful personality of the outdoors upon the artist rather than a literal representation of the scene, the actual landscape frequently reduced to bare cartoon line under a crackling sky. The few figures present are small, overwhelmed by the sense of open land and sky.
For the most part, it is when the landscape is reduced to cipher in this way that the painting is at its strongest, as in the timeless and location-less Soft rain, with its protagonists crossing a formless dreaming of land. The term ''dreaming'' here is telling, as there is almost the feel of a creation myth about the solid air and fluid earth. A further work, depicting the national bonspiel, is also notable, the feeling of place well presented with its small figures fading and diminishing across a wide perspective plain.
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