Art Seen: October 18

In this week's Art Seen, Robyn Maree Pickens looks at exhibitions from Blue Black, Peter McKay, and Louise Menzies.

 

‘‘Neave’’ ceramic, 2018, by Blue Black
‘‘Neave’’ ceramic, 2018, by Blue Black
''Mutiny'', Blue Black (Mint Gallery)

''Mutiny'' is an apt title for Blue Black's latest body of ceramics on several counts. Firstly, it introduces the exhibition's theme, which is, for the most part, nautical-inspired, and most evident in the four main sculptural works exhibited on white metal stands.

The second count of mutiny can be seen in these four sculptural works, which are at once boat-like and resolutely most unlikely sea-going vessels. They are fantastical, somewhat speculative boat-like forms and creatures (if creatures can be boats).

Their forms recall shipwrecks, gelatinous sea monsters, rafts and, in the case of Neave, a bricked turret composite with a bright orange, triangular boom sail. Of these four works, Ghost Ship also exemplifies Black's mutinous approach to the ceramic tradition.

In this instance, Black has dipped a piece of punga in a clay slip, which burns out the punga in the firing process. Black then glazes the ceramic remains, and fires and reglazes the form multiple times to achieve the richly-coloured surface. Each of these four works rests on a stand that is inspired by buoys.

In addition to these ceramic sculptures there are two large wall-based ceramic installations and a smaller wall-based work. The ceramic installations, such as Ghost Ship, comprise objects that, once dipped in clay and fired, have disappeared, or appear ''ghosted''. Suspended from rails, Untitled (Orange Rail) is evocative of seaweed.

 

‘‘Pendant (canoe)’’, by Peter McKay
‘‘Pendant (canoe)’’, by Peter McKay
''Peter McKay'', Peter McKay (Brett McDowell Gallery)

Known as one of this country's foremost art jewellers, Peter McKay's current exhibition at Brett McDowell Gallery presents a suite of ink on card drawings alongside his primary medium of sterling silver jewellery. The companionability of the two mediums is immediately apparent in terms of subject matter and style.

In his jewellery and drawings, McKay creates small microcosms of a much larger narrative (or series of intersecting narratives) that have been in progress for decades. These microcosmic worlds are peopled by top-hatted figures paddling canoes, birds, open-jawed dogs, stylised, windswept trees and even a dragon hound.

Together these figures and elements interact in what has come to be known as ''Canterbury gothic'', so somewhat unsurprisingly there is a darkness undergirding the whimsical.

McKay's most striking drawings share formal similarities with a stacked vignette style of organising space present in some pendants and brooches on display. These drawings distil the world-within-a-world narrative elements often choreographed into discrete sections on the pendants and brooches.

This formal strategy has the effect of condensing narrative drama into what are very small spaces of silver. It is this formal strategy that McKay has carried over into the most striking series of drawings (hung near the pendants closest to the window). Given the economy of ink and card deployed by McKay, these densely-patterned drawings stand out.

 

‘‘Untitled (textile design no. II), 1925’’ by Louise Menzies
‘‘Untitled (textile design no. II), 1925’’ by Louise Menzies
''Untitled (textile design no. II), 1925'' Louise Menzies (xxx)

Lousie Menzies is the fifth artist to respond to xxx's thematic ''counterfeit'', in which each artist engages with the work of another artist. Menzies, the current Frances Hodgkins Fellow, chose the lesser-known textile designs in gouache by modernist painter Frances Hodgkins (1869-1949), and has retained Hodgkins' original title, Untitled (textile design) no. II from 1925, for her work.

The textile design chosen by Menzies is comprised of a black hybrid shape (part rectilinear, part circular) with cut-in steps against a brilliant pinky-red background. This black shape is offset by a series of black and lemon lines at right angles and a small pale blue triangle to form an ''all over'' design.

As Hodgkins gouache design measures a slight 23.8cm by 35.5cm, Menzies' initial intervention lay in how to interpret the design and subsequently how to repeat it for a larger project. Menzies' engagement is best described as a version of Hodgkins' original design rather than an exact reproduction, and her second intervention lies in the application of the design.

For her exhibition at xxx, Menzies has turned Hodgkins' textile design into soft furnishing for three pieces of furniture: an adjustable office chair, a padded three-legged stool and a rigid office chair. Each piece has been upholstered in Hodgkins' textile design.

And in a satisfying twist, each piece of furniture comes from the Frances Hodgkins studio, which Menzies occupies. Open Sundays, 10-1pm only.

-By Robyn Maree Pickens

Add a Comment