Thorny issues rooted in floral metaphor

Robert Jahnke's bed of roses relates to the foreshore and seabed debate. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Art is achieved by the transformation of mundane materials into forms that work on mind and emotion.

At the Bath Street Gallery, Robert Jahnke, who feels passionately about issues concerning Maori, notably the seabed and foreshore legislation, makes his statements in lacquer on stainless steel and by using such untraditional materials as a Victorian brass bed. The exhibition is called Bed of Roses and follows on from his previous exhibition at the gallery by using the rose and its thorns as a symbol of contradictions, remembrance, beauty and menace.

Most of the works contain a silhouette of a twining rose bush against a background of classical roman lettering. The text is often hard to see behind the patterns of the rose.

The rubrics, seen through the imagery, refer to states of mind.

A lacquered plate called The White Rose of Innocence has a white rose within an intensely black oval with words about lost innocence behind it.

The Black Rose of Remembrance is a lament for the past and The Black Rose of Sorrow is solemn and funereal.

These works in black and white are very powerful. Another series of works called Among Thorns Grow Roses uses an unnatural brick-red colour which is warm but curiously subdued.

The main focus of the show is on the bed with hundreds of artificial pink roses lit from beneath and lettering about the foreshore debate. This piece is flanked by two parts of a Proverb Suite, panels of intense black, as black as space. Lettered on them in a way that is barely perceptible unless you manoeuvre to catch the best light are sayings summed up by one panel, Truths Have Thorns.

It is ambiguous and contradictory; at times obvious and, at others, beautiful. The elegance of these panels defuses some of the force apparent in the artist's earlier work such as monumental stamps putting their mark on the land and his rows of axes representing the force of doctrine.

Jahnke's work certainly exemplifies his power over materials by transforming them into symbols with relevance to our society.

A more mild show of stone sculpture by John Edgar called Arc at Artis Gallery concentrates on the material itself.

Edgar's expertise for many years has been in slicing stone and matching it with contrasting stone or glass with flawless joins. Two works in the exhibition break the customary moulds of his work and are particularly effective. Element combines pillars of black stone with pillars of glass in such a way that the work changes as you move past it. At the same time it rises to an irregular top which is a landscape in itself.

The other work, Compass, is a massive monolith of New Zealand basalt for the most part left rough in complete contradiction to the polish everywhere else in the show, except that the top of stone is hollowed out as a perfect bowl. This displays the richness of the colour at the stone's heart. The work has elements of a font and certainly suggests ritual as well as revealing the nature of the stone.

At the other end of the spectrum from the weight of stone are the thin printed paper and perforated edges of postage stamps. Lianne Edwards, whose work Second Nature is at the Antoinette Godkin Gallery, has access to huge numbers of old New Zealand postage stamps. With extraordinary accuracy she isolates part of the stamps, the heads of birds, statuesque figures of fertility, lizards and butterflies. Large numbers of these repetitive images are woven into patterns to make individual works.

In one case hundreds of an eight-pence tuatara stamp from 1935 are arranged in tight concentric circles on a light box that emphasises the transparency of the paper and makes the whole arrangement appear like a radiant magical symbol. The 20c kakapo stamp is used by the hundreds to create an impressive tight spiral of birds, the artist's special interest.

A group of three works are not framed. The stamps are connected with transparent stamp hinges and are mounted clear of the wall on almost unseen pins so their shadow casts an intricate abstract pattern. Arcadian Myths uses Southland Centennial stamps from 1965 where a draped fertility goddess stands next to cows and sheep. It is a delightful work.

Throughout the show the stamps, cut with precision and imaginatively assembled, are transformed to evoke history, wildlife and New Zealand imagery in a very special way

In the nearby City Art Rooms, Trenton Garratt uses as materials: mattress, straw mat, flax mat, a brass handle, step ladder, a burning candle, enamel paint as well as pencil and crayon. The effect is as diffuse as his materials but indicates the variety of ways his art might develop.

It still has some way to go.

At Whitespace, Nicky Foreman's career has been one of consistent development in using unconventional materials mixed with conventional painting. She uses collage, metal and relief effects. That collage can be evocative is proven when it is an entry ticket to the Matisse chapel in Venice, France, used to evoke many layers of association from religion to colour.

In the past she collected everyday objects and representations of everyday objects into compilations that celebrated the landscape around Taranaki. Her world has expanded since then from old fence posts and macrocarpa to draw inspiration from artists of the past and European images such as stained glass.

Yet it still delights in a variety of sensuous experience and the process of transforming the mundane into something special. This time the images are from wider experience, and, under the influence of the geometry of Renaissance painting, some works are oval and circular. Of particular note is Rotatio where circles rhyme and chime against each other and combine abstract experiences of colour with areas of relief.

At the galleries

What: Bed of Roses by Robert Jahnke
Where and when: Bath Street Gallery, 43 Bath St, Parnell, to Nov 28
TJ says: Sculptor Jahnke uses stainless steel and a brass bedstead to make points about Maori issues in an elegant way based on ambiguity and epigrams.

What: Arc by John Edgar
Where and when: Artis, 280 Parnell Rd, to Nov 29
TJ says: With immaculate craftsmanship Edgar blends slabs of stone and glass into objects that are always attractive and sometimes achieve higher levels of significance.

What: Second Nature by Lianne Edwards
Where and when: Antoinette Godkin Gallery, Level 1, 28 Lorne St, to Nov 28
TJ says: Startlingly effective grids and spirals made from masses of used stamps carefully cut to make conservationist statement.

What: Other Bedrooms by Trenton Garratt
Where and when: City Art Rooms, 28 Lorne St, to Nov 28
TJ says: Quirky installation by young artist seeking direction.

What: Mixed media work by Nicky Foreman
Where and when: Whitespace, 12 Crummer Rd, to Nov 21
TJ says: Visual experiences neatly captured in a variety of ways and melded into unity by shape and colour.

What: Coast - Landscapes from Raglan by Gaye Jurisich, also at Whitespace, to Nov 21.

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