Artist Leonie Smith looks through a pinhole lens at Milbank Gallery exhibit

Artist Leonie Smith surrounded by some of the works in her camera obscura exhibition at Milbank Gallery. Photo/Stuart Munro

Taranaki artist Leonie Smith has a long-held fascination with camera obscura - the optical phenomenon that occurs when an image is projected through a small hole.

With her exhibition Swingers and Multiple Pickups (extending the reach) at WHMilbank Gallery in Whanganui, she has taken her enchantment to a whole new level.

The watched have become the watchers as each of the black painted toys in the exhibition have tiny pinholes on their heads or other parts of their bodies.

"If we look into the pinhole, our image is projected in the chamber inside the doll," says the artist.

The dolls in the exhibition are all painted black (Smith's signature colour) and closer inspection reveals that they are familiar identities.

There are Japanese geisha dolls, 1970s versions of Victoriana dolls with disproportionately large heads and clown dolls slumped or swinging as the exhibition title suggests.

"I wanted to find some dolls on sticks like the ones that used to be sold at fairgrounds," said Smith.

"They are hard to come by."

She has managed to find some remnants of the old A & P Show favourites and there is a skirt with a doll's head peering out of the waist aperture and another where the doll is facing away from the viewer with her skirt seemingly caught in a strong wind.

"The pinhole is in this one's behind," says Smith.

Where her previous camera obscura exhibitions provided darkened chambers for viewers to place their heads inside and observe the projected images, this one keeps them secret.

The pinholes in the dolls provide an "optical absence" in that they do not allow us to see in to the world inside.

The pinhole is interpreted as a lens (perhaps a surveillance camera) which can throw a viewer in to a state of flux like a rabbit trapped in the headlights.

Smith obtained a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Western Institute of Technology (WITT) in 2007 and has exhibited several times in New Plymouth as well as taking part at the Birmingham Festival in Nevada, US.

Camera obscura by Leonie Smith, Milbank Gallery 1B Bell St - Swinger and Multiple Pick Ups (extending the reach). Gallery hours Tuesday-Sunday, 11am to 5pm.