KEY POINTS:
Many artists are concerned about how they can put an extra spin on their work. In two highly disparate exhibitions this week, artists decide to use projection as well as painting. The exuberant work of Mark Braunias tumbles all over the walls of the Bath Street Gallery. Each
work is an accumulation of many incidents drawn directly on the wall, or framed works are placed on top of assemblages of works on paper.
The works contain enormous detail and the figures spill all over them. Sometimes they are autobiographical, sometimes quotations from the art of the past or some are just a reflection of the artist's fascination with marks and comic image making.
Two big works cover the east and west walls of the gallery. The one drawn directly on the east wall has a screen at its centre with projected animated images that show the process of drawing. They are reflections of how the artist's thinking works. Spreading around this centre is a mass of images that are amusing in a variety of ways. Big-eyed figures suggest a stylised Mickey Mouse and at other times completely abstract forms loop and blob in a way that is unexpected and humorous.
There are times when figures like bagpipers entertain; at others, priests and other patrolmen and people in costumes suggest the artist's Austrian heritage.
It is some years since Braunias had a show in Auckland. Last time it was a re-creation of his studio based on his interest in boxing. This time it is a wider re-creation of his thinking and practice and the projected material is part of it. Overall, a feeling of push and aggression gives energy but the consistently autobiographical nature of the images excludes general references to a broader audience.
In individual paintings he groups the figures against backgrounds of plain, sometimes lurid colour. Groups of separate drawings reflect Braunias' preoccupation with draughtsmanship and are complete in themselves rather than sketches for larger works.
The work of Sam Foley at Whitespace focuses on one kind of realistic image and the projection is something added experimentally. His technically brilliant work shows paths through the beech forests of the South Island. The paths have a slight sense of symbolism as he paints the dappled light through the trees and the patterns of the trunks reaching upward.
The paintings are of an impressive size and the handling of paint is a virtuoso performance. In a work in the window, the patterns of leaves give a real sense of delight in the act of painting.
Paint has its limitations. It can never match the range of intensity of natural light and shade. To intensify the light areas of his work, the artist has photographed two paintings and made a television loop which is projected on to them at exactly the same size as the painting. The gain is luminous intensity where light strikes the trunks of trees or spills across his pathways. He also adds tiny effects of motion, a little shaking of the leaves, with bird noise on one loop and rain on another.
All this is unnecessary, especially when a dim figure runs up the path in one painting. The painting is excellent, so the projection adds nothing and interpretation would be better left to the viewer's imagination.
In complete contrast, the work of Michael Harrison called Example of the Ravens at Ivan Anthony is a pure, simple, distilled, small-scale expression of deep emotion. His figures and symbols are scarcely more than outlines although the drawing for all its simplicity is very subtle. The background is almost invariably blue, with birds flying free.
In a typical work such as Prediction a man is looking at a shape in the blue in which lovers embrace. Two birds offering a sense of freedom of the spirit are matched by a dog in the corner with its tongue out, slavering with simple animal instinct. The longing for love and affection and the combination of instinct and spirit are very softly expressed but the essence of love is captured. The expressiveness often lies in tiny details. In a work called Bad Cat a woman longing for freedom is confronted by the tiny, sharp, wicked eyes of the cat she holds.
These ambiguities of emotion are elsewhere explored in a slightly different way, notably in After Picabia where two female figures, one substantial and one hinted at, meld into one. The more complex figure drawing of this work suggests a way Harrison's highly individual and sensitive art will continue to evolve.
There is a return to complexity in the intriguing constructions made entirely of old issues of postage stamps by Lianne Edwards at the Vavasour Godkin Gallery. The constructions are open and delicate and throw a pattern of shadow on the wall behind them. The dozens of stamps go right back to 1935, with each one carefully cut and linked with stamp hinges. These decorative pieces have a nostalgic appeal. A classic example is made from the 5d stamp showing a leaping swordfish. For anyone over 60 this is revisiting a once familiar image. For anyone under 60 it is an immaculately crafted structure using the curve of the fish. This is the most unclassifiable exhibition seen in Auckland for years. Art or curiosity? It is impossible to decide.
For gallery listings, see www.nzherald.co.nz/arts
This week at the galleries
What: New Works, by Mark Braunias
Where and when: Bath Street Gallery, 43 Bath St, Parnell, to
Aug 2
TJ says: Dense masses of exuberant drawings all over walls, canvas and paper.
What: On the Surface, by Sam Foley
Where and when: Whitespace, 12 Crummer Rd, to Aug 6
TJ says: Excellent accurate, moody landscape painting twitched by experimental projection.
What: Example of the Ravens, by Michael Harrison
Where and when: Ivan Anthony, 312 Karangahape Rd, to Aug 9
TJ says: The expression of deep, instinctive feeling in paintings of delicate charm.
What: ReCollect, by Lianne Edwards
Where and when: Vavasour Godkin Gallery, 35 High St, to Aug 2
TJ says: Extraordinary constructions of old postage stamps; more craft than art?