TJ McNamara: Triennial's hub a modern pleasure

<i>Singing Cloud</i> by Indian artist Shilpa Gupta. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The 4th Auckland Triennial is upon us with work by nearly 30 local and international artists curated by Natasha Conland of the Auckland Art Gallery. The largest venue is the New Gallery. This has certainly not been transformed into any Tennysonion Palace of Art filled with paintings and sculptures of what a ribald American painter called "kings and dukes and neekid broads". In fact there is almost no painting at all and no bronze statues. What there is, in all its variety, reflects the unprecedented freedom of choice in materials, style and media available to the modern artist.

Robert Hood of Christchurch shows the junked remains of his car and the contents of its boot in Making the Useful Useless. The unorthodox materials are not used just for their own sake as they often were last century but now are mostly used to confront modern situations - not to preach but to present.

The engagement with unconventional expression begins at both entrances to the exhibition. At the Wellesley St entrance as you go up the escalator you are confronted with an organic igloo created by a Danish-Swedish collective called Learning Site. This House of Economy is made of locally produced materials including mushrooms that feed on straw. Over the course of the festival it will decay into compost. The reference is to the accumulation of capital as well as to processes of disintegration in society. It looks like a termite hill that might contain a colony of industrious ants and this adds to the metaphorical readings.

Coming by way of Khartoum Place, at the door you will see a video by Jorge Macchi of Argentina of a performing musical box that continually spews out brightly coloured cards like enlarged ticker tape. The writing on the tape contains news of disasters and veiled prophecies of the end of the world. It mimics the endless supply of news headlines.

The engagement with contemporary issues continues on the ground floor in the work of Irishman Garrett Phelan, who does funky magazine covers and posters in an appropriately rough way that confront social issues. One of them has the rubric "know nothing - be safe". One cannot go through this Triennial staying entirely safe in your opinions.

Some work offers modern comment in historical style. Olivia Plender, of England, blends history with modern concerns in an extraordinary way. Her work is made up of handbills that imitate printing in the 17th century. A handbill supposedly of a huge whale washed up in the Thames mixes pastoral scenes with the tall buildings of Canary Wharf in the background. This amusing pastiche has a direct reference to the big banks in the city of London that were all washed up in the latest financial crisis.

On the first floor of the gallery, modern media are joined to make a great hanging fruit, or whale, or whatever, made of 4000 microphones by Shilpa Gupta of India. It is an astonishing object. It emphasises that we are at risk of being bludgeoned by messages and music from many sources. It is a remarkable thing in itself, linked to an electronic notice board that sends out loaded messages.

While most of the exhibits strive for political or social relevance, one work is simply elegant and delightfully entertaining. Every visitor should make their way delicately through the narrow space hung with bird perches by Bundith Phunsombatlert of Thailand. Moving among these delicate structures triggers birdsong and each hanging piece becomes agitated as if by invisible birds as you move by.

There is also an element of wit and pleasure in the work of New Zealander Alicia Frankovich, although it is hard to wring much meaning from a ball hanging in a sling or from blood-red shopping bags from Berlin lettered with "myth and truth". The lining of one of her mini-skirts is also on display. By contrast her improvised indoor fountain that flows through Martini bottles not only suggests drinking but also systems associated with water, blood and human functions. The concept is thought-provoking.

Another room is given over to the remarkable images of Marine Hugonnier that emphasise all sorts of risk, notably in a superb view of the perilous summit of the Matterhorn. Another screen shows roads through the Brazilian rainforest and a third has a beautiful image of a hot air balloon, which may have inspired the title of the whole festival. These film loops make you sit down and look. The element of time is part of modern art.

The exhibition is full of invention but toward the end of the first floor what has been a real journey through fresh experience becomes more predictable and banal. Nick Austin of Auckland speaks of a dull world with dull paintings of open books with blank pages nibbled away by a snail shown progressing slowly along the bottoms of the paintings.

In the same room, American Sharon Hayes indulgently illuminates the vagaries of her relationships with discourse from speakers linked with posters that shed little light on her life or anyone else's.

Finally, this floor, which has given plenty of material for thought and delight, ends up with a cliche. A whole room is devoted to black and white material assembled by Gerard Byrne on that old canard, the Loch Ness Monster. The assemblage of facts and dubious photographs is in the service of a myth that is a mystery no longer because it has been done to death. The only good thing about this assemblage is a tree stump with some of its root system still attached. It has tiny pins in the annual rings that mark the passage of time and history.

The exhibition at the New Gallery is the heart of the Triennial and it is a heart that beats strongly. In this century the radical has become orthodox and this exhibition is a fine guide to the prevailing orthodoxy filtered through current curatorial practice. It is certainly well worth an hour or two. There is an excellent free exhibition guide and a well-designed if ponderously written catalogue.

The Triennial extends to another four venues which will be subject of a column next week.

AT THE GALLERIES

What: Last Ride in a Hot Air Balloon: The 4th Auckland Triennial
Where and when: Auckland Art Gallery - New Gallery, Khartoum Place; Artspace, Level 1, 300 Karangahape Rd; St Paul St, AUT University, 40 St Paul St; George Fraser Gallery, 25a Princes St; Shed 6, 90 Wellesley St, to June 20
TJ says: No Monet blockbuster here but a lively guide to current practice in an extraordinary variety of materials and styles by a carefully curated range of international artists.

For gallery listings, see www.nzherald.co.nz/go/artlistings