Riddle exhibit may leave you puzzled

The Sarjeant Gallery's exhibition Riddle: Enigmatic Works from the Collection runs until February 25.

People may feel challenged to work out what the artworks are all about and even why the Gallery has acquired them. Sometimes the titles give clues, others may seem to add to the puzzle, and yet others may be read at face value.

"I wanted to select works where you're not quite sure what's going on or what the answer is. For me that's some of the best work - where you are left wondering what it is the artist's intending to do or say," said curator Greg Donson.

The starting point of the exhibition is a major work by Mervyn Williams, Crucible (Bronze) 1993, recently gifted to the gallery along with other key paintings. "The work has an extraordinary surface that utilises Williams' chiaroscuro painting technique, which he has mastered over the course of his career. It looks three dimensional but it's completely flat."

People may think it is fabric, or a moonscape, even a photograph.

"It suggests so many different things. You need to encounter works in the flesh. There is so much online now, but unless you are in front of a work you're often not going to experience what they are about."

A work by Andrew Drummond is entitled Device for the Observation of Specimens, one of two the former Tylee Cottage artist-in-residence gifted to the gallery.

"His works often have a mechanical bent to them. This one is from a series he made in response to over a decade's worth of investigation into coal, the machinery, and the history of mines on the West Coast of the South Island."

One of Donson's favourites is Don Driver's Structure in Blue, Cosmos Series (1974). The work is one of series comprised of large freestanding boxes utilising materials such as stainless steel sheeting, Perspex and coloured plastic tubing.

"If there was to be a professional riddle maker of New Zealand art history, Driver would be it. He often brought together materials that were unexpected, mostly found in the world around him. In this work we're not quite sure what we should be seeing - ourselves, the gallery or light reflected in the work's shiny surface? It looks like it's plugged in to some unknown energy source, but it's humming all on its own; maybe what bothers us is we can't recognise the frequency."

"The exhibition also highlights the importance of documentation and research. Through the passing of time and the demise of the artists, works can become cryptic, unless galleries have the research behind them and know what the artists' intention was."

An example of this is photographer Ann Shelton's Anniversary "We have maintained a silence closely resembling stupidity" Neil Roberts, 1982. The story behind this work is especially significant for Whanganui. Anarchist punk Neil Roberts graffitied the above phrase on a public toilet block at Pakaitore before blowing himself up. Ms Shelton's photographs rewrite the phrase using burning sparklers against a black void. This is one example of a work that is well documented, meaning its story won't be lost to future gallery visitors.