Beauty of the commonplace

By T.J. McNAMARA

At the Anna Bibby Gallery in Newmarket until August 2, Elizabeth Thomson is showing her cool, lovely, relief sculptures made from bronze shapes on fields of white. The shapes are leaves done in high fidelity and the subtlety lies in the variations in size in the basic forms and the stereophonic arrangements of them.

The bronze leaves have a green patina which makes them effective against the white background and the effect is increased by the shadow they throw which makes them distinct from any painted forms.

The only painted things are in the extreme distance, in a work such as Snake River Study where the leaves diminish as they wind away into the distance. The perspective effect is strong and so is the suggestion of a winding, ever-flowing source of fertility.

The effects are not only perspective illusions. In the "Topographical" works delicate curves suggest contours of landscape.

Other works that use the diminishing perspective effect, such as Continuo and Space, Time Continuum, make it clear that their graceful lines are paradigms for what is eternal and continuous in simple life forms.

The group of works that are subtly arranged to suggest they are seen from above evoke both rituals and gardens. The sense of ritual is reinforced by one work in the shape of a cross which is formed entirely of buds.

Because the leaves and buds are so realistic there is a profound sense of finding meaning by taking what is everywhere and ordinary and making art by imposing order on it in ways that make it both illustrate and defy time.

Simple, graceful and visually startling, these quiet works are unique in sculpture in New Zealand and the show includes one work (in the window of the gallery) that gives a clear direction of further development.

When Jim Speers entitles his work at the Jensen Gallery in Upper Queen St until August 9, One Good Thing About Music: Martina del Ray, he too is pointing to the origin of his work not in high-flown theory but in the ordinary and everyday.

Indeed his work is like a lightbox in an advertising or window display.

The comparison would not offend the artist. He is taking commonplace things such as light fittings and lifting them to the height of art. The effect of fluorescent light behind plastic is here made into abstract compositions that are both mysterious and delightful. The colours sing and are luminous beyond anything paint could achieve. The comparison with music is apt and, of course, signalled by the titling.

Colour suggests a mood, so Polarstar is blue shading into green with a mixture of yellow and English Electric is a bright blaze of red and green, but because of the nature of the bounce of fluorescent light through vinyl and matt acrylic all the colours are soft, suffused and warm. This leads to a certain similarity in all the work despite variations in size and shape. The one outstanding work is Sugarloaf which is very sweet but has the grandeur of size and complication as well an eerie stillness.

The only quibble about the work which is undoubtedly excellent in its abstract way is the leakage of light from the side, which would not matter if it were rim-lighting but when it is irregular suggests some fault in construction.

Bath St in Parnell is now home to two fine galleries. The long-established Warwick Henderson Gallery is showing the work of Robyn Kahukiwa. This bold and committed show has only a few days to run.

It makes a powerful impact because of its simplicity and strength and the forthrightness of its message. The idiom is Maori with an emphasis on the female.

The big paintings are loaded with images of birth, blood and umbilical cords. The theme that links these images - that the family is the fundamental unit of society, supported by the power of Maori tradition - does not exclude the possibility of biculturalism.

There is nothing subtle about any of the paintings. The tight detailing which was once a feature of Kahukiwa's work has long gone and her present broad rhetorical style works best with massive female figures and monumental heads in profile. Elsewhere the work is too raw to be totally convincing.

Directly across the road is the new stylish Bath St Gallery, which is particularly suited to showing sculpture - which makes its present show, Animal Vegetable Mineral by four women artists, very effective. It runs until August 2.

Jo Bruce-Smith's work takes many forms, from a splendid, round work in ink and graphite to a group of works in thick gesso loaded with limestone and arranged in mathematical series.

These are severe works and not as approachable as her fine, textured drawings on paper. Jude Graveson makes a rack of clothes from beef casings and the skin-like quality and the transparency make them a wardrobe of wraiths.

Her heads made from cow gut are strange objects where membrane suggests both the unity and the fate of living things.

Amelia Bywater uses cast glass to fix memory in objects and Alice Blackley is showing two of her fascinating works that combine the force of arcane writing with the monumentality of worked stones recovered by archaeology.

The use of text is fashionable these days but few artists use it as forcefully and to such visual effect as she does. Subtlety and strength yet again.