By James Dignan
(Moray Gallery)
Anton Lambaart’s portraits and nudes appear on the surface to be calm, reflective character studies. However, they have hidden depths and symbolism.
Lambaart’s works reflect on the fragility of both the human condition and on the natural world. Mental stability is something which most people see as a given, but for many young men, the stresses of the modern world make it less than a certainty. The figures in the artist’s images bear these stresses and strains, which clearly mark their faces as they stare from the canvas. In images such as The Letter, the worry is clear on the face of the protagonist.
This fragility complements the more symbolic references to the planet’s ecology, similarly mistakenly viewed as permanent and stable. References to rising tides (As the water rises) and pollution (Dead waters) appear in several of the works, culminating in the post-apocalyptic image of Stop.
The works are well-crafted, with perhaps the most interesting of the pieces being those where the brushwork has been deliberately left in a sketchy, half-polished state. The most clear of these is Scarlet Warning, its dark undercoat showing through to act as a deep subconscious shadow on the mind of the subject.
(Brett McDowell Gallery)
A fine collection of photographic "Aides Memoire" awaits visitors to Brett McDowell Gallery, in the latest exhibition by master photographer Laurence Aberhart.
Taken over a period of decades (the works date between 1980 and 2018), the photographs capture an essence of New Zealand, its vanishing small towns and suburbia. The images are largely devoid of people, focusing instead on early 20th century architecture and the occasional quirky juxtaposition. The latter pieces are exemplified by the image of a tourist sign in Inglewood showing Mount Taranaki, with the peak of the mountain itself photo-bombing the display.
Aberhart is particularly drawn to those features of New Zealand which are slowly vanishing. In this particular display, this is exemplified by a wall of images featuring old masonic lodges around the country.
Though many such buildings are still in use, the number is slowly decreasing, and Aberhart has deliberately focused his attention on capturing an archival record of these structures.
Two somewhat unusual Aberhart works particularly capture the eye. One, Lyttelton, is the only colour image in the show, with a reduced palette of fierce Polaroid blue and cream. The other work, View from Ridge Road, magnificently captures the remains of an old house teetering on a hillside above the fertile Waikato Plains.
(RDS Gallery)
Architecture-inspired photographs are also the order of the day at RDS, in an exhibition of more modern structures by Murray Eskdale.
Eskdale’s images differ from Aberhart’s in a further regard than the age of the buildings. Where the latter artist regards his subjects as entire in and of themselves, buildings upon the map of the land, Eskdale’s work focuses more closely on the grids and patterns which compose the buildings. The difference between structures, plural, and structure, overall, is the essence of the contrast between the displays.
Eskdale’s strong work depicts the patterns of the built world — the horizontals, verticals and diagonals which form their own patterns and become abstracts within the picture frame. By using photographic contact sheets for some of his display he takes these geometries one stage further, superimposing a clean black grid over his deconstructions.
If there is a sense of kinship and continuity between the two exhibitions it is in a combined passion for the ephemerality of buildings. While a large commercial edifice might look like it is in place for the ages, Eskdale’s eye keenly notes the new buildings becoming old. His studies of the former Marsden Point Refinery and Dunedin’s slowly deteriorating hospital show to excellent effect the artist’s sensitivity towards the mutability of our urban skylines.
