New Zealand show exotic in the Lone Star State

By LOUISE POPPELWELL

Artist Julian Dashper has long been a fan of the United States. "I've always been interested in America - it feels like another planet," he says.

Perhaps the interest has finally become mutual, because Dashper has recently travelled to the US for the opening of his exhibition at the Texas Gallery in Houston.

The gallery, established in 1971, has a long tradition of showing distinguished artists, and features a cross-section of mostly Americans including Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Judd and Chuck Close.

Dashper's exhibition represents a break in the gallery's programme. "It's something different for them. It's a bit exotic, it comes from New Zealand."

Gallery directors Fredericka Hunter and Ian Glennie first came to New Zealand in the late 1990s and developed an interest in the art produced here. They got to know Dashper's work and started to collect his trademark "records".

Hunter suggested Dashper should complete a residency at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. The foundation was established by artist Donald Judd in the 1970s as an alternative to a conventional museum residency.

Dashper was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to attend in 2001, at which time the possibility of an exhibition at the Texas Gallery was considered. The directors felt an affinity with Dashper's work.

"They were very au fait with where I was coming from. You don't have to explain the basics to their audience. I'm not saying you don't get that in New Zealand, but there is a strong culture of support and understanding over there."

The show will run for two months. Titled Unique Records, the exhibition consists of a series of one-off LPs, each documenting the sounds recorded by Dashper at various locations around the world.

The sites are all significant in art history: for example, the tree where Jackson Pollock suffered his fatal car crash in 1956, or outside the Rothko Chapel in Houston.

Dashper has been making records as part of his art for some time. While it is possible to listen to them, the records can also be valued as visual objects, but they are not sound art.

For the Texas show Dashper plays on the culture of reproduction. Because he has made only one copy of each record, he is able to personalise something usually produced in the thousands. "There is an urge in artists to make things more unique."

By being shown in Texas, the records are going home in a sense, says Dashper.

"I like the perverse logic of it. You've got a New Zealand boy recording the noise outside the Rothko Chapel in Houston so a Houston person can buy it back and listen to it. There is something about taking these records back to Texas that I really like. I am like an outsider picking up on things the locals might not."

Dashper has been exhibiting overseas since the early 1990s, yet remains reserved about what this means in terms of success. "I hesitate to talk about the pluses of showing at this gallery too much because it implies you don't get these in New Zealand or Australia, and you do. The gallery is in no way better than Sue Crockford's [in Auckland]."

This month Dashper is also showing at the Raid Projects, an artist-run space in Los Angeles. He credits his ability to exhibit internationally to the art community he is part of.

"All these exhibitions happen through a combination of artists' initiatives or contact with people who have a similar interest in contemporary art. I am fond of describing exhibitions as conferences. They are a way of exchanging ideas and connecting with others - there's nothing competitive about it."