T.J. McNamara: Vignettes of our world

Peter James Smith's tea trays are laden with character.

Unusual use of photography fosters new perceptions of an endless natural process

Two galleries this week show art that really gains by being seen in reality rather than in reproduction. Downstairs at Two Rooms, Elizabeth Thomson is showing work that once again emphasises her inventive use of unusual materials.

The show, called Transitive States, has one part based on photographs of salt beds layered like sand washed by waves. The images are on vinyl film cast into gentle, almost imperceptible hollows with the surface fixed by clear resin. This is topped with a layer of tiny glass spheres, which reflect light.

The effect of these unusual materials and surfaces is to make the underlying images suggest depth as an endless natural process and an everchanging bright light. Each one is a kind of awakening to the sensation of the sea.

In the works titled Tatio, the sensation is of shallow clear water. The particularly fine Tatio V has hints of pale green, which suggest growth and fertility. The larger Solaris, which dispenses with the reflective surface of glass spheres, conveys the feeling of deeper ocean waters and the play of light on the ripples of the surface. Both offer transcendent states of emotion stimulated beyond the depiction of the sea into communion with natural forces.

The largest and most impressive work of all, Sentient, makes a radical change of direction. Ripples of light, rather than going across the image, turn inward toward a darker, deeper, vertical blue in the heart of the painting. It is on a contoured wooden panel, the contours so slight that when you stand close to the work and the eye travels around, it almost appears to be breathing. It radiates force and has a very special presence. Thompson's exhibitions have been rare in recent years but every one signals a new direction and a new intensity of expression.

Sentient by Elizabeth Thomson, at Two Rooms. Photo / Supplied

Upstairs at Two Rooms is an exhibition of photographs of still life by Fiona Pardington. They do not have the usual shiny photographic surface because the images have been printed on layers of gesso, normally used as a primary coating on canvas for painting. These ink-jet prints resemble paintings as much as they do photographs. Yet one of the things the original photograph confers is exact, fine detail, notably on the feathers that feature in most of the images. The collection is called Ex Vivo because the most powerful of them feature dead birds washed up on Ripiro Beach where Pardington lives. They are accompanied by other detritus thrown up by the sea. A dead hawk hangs beside a beautiful paper nautilus. Still Life With Albatross Tail has a pewter vase, whale bone and shotgun casings, which hint at some modern Ancient Mariner. The feeling is sometimes grisly, as in that of two dead gulls, but colour and association transform the unappealing into a special truth. It is a small but compelling exhibition.

Across the road at Orexart are another two exhibitions. In one the works are hung on the wall yet are in three dimensions. All are made on tea trays. They reflect the remarkably active mind of Peter James Smith. Where another artist might do a quick sketch, Smith takes objects, glues them to the trays, adds a flourish of painting or an inscription giving visual form to each inspiration.

He has made 183 of these objects for this show. They range from the artist's characteristic seascapes, notably one of a lonely sea and a solitary albatross, to found objects like a fine edition of Milton's poems wrapped in ribbon that holds a memory stick which could contain all of his epic work. The piece is called Paradise Lost. Others have art historical references, such as a pipe with a famous comment from Magritte. A delicious Jasper Olympics shows gods from Wedgwood in athletic poses. The occasional miss is cancelled out by the large number of successful creative ideas.

The show that comes closest to conventional painting is that by Joon Hee Park, Welcome to My World, also at Orexart. This is a sharply drawn autobiographical dream world. The artist and her white cat, Peter, feature in all these works. They exist in a surreal world of the dreaming imagination surrounded by creatures. The dinosaurs, rhinos, dolphins, narwhals and gigantic octopuses are smiling. Their menace has been defused and tamed by balloons and ribbons and by acting a part in a Sunday Market, or a Midnight Tea Party. The wide-eyed young woman and her cat rule this world.

Joon Hee Park's dream world in Midnight Tea Party. Photo / Supplied

The scenes are like illustrations to a children's storybook but there is an edge to these things. A ride high in the sky on an octopus is still perilous despite the comforting balloons. The general feeling is that if you face up to the oddity of some things the imagination produces, there may be fine things to be seen. The artist has successfully created a special imaginative world all of her own.

At the galleries

What:

Transitive States by Elizabeth Thomson; Ex Vivo by Fiona Pardington

Where and when:

Two Rooms Gallery, 16 Putiki St, Newton, to November 29

TJ says:

Elizabeth Thomson uses vinyl film, epoxy resin and glass spheres to suggest everchanging moods of the sea while, in the upstairs gallery, photographer Fiona Pardington prints her images of death and beauty in nature on gesso.

What: Carried by Peter James Smith; Welcome to My World by Joon Hee Park
Where and when: Orexart, 15 Putiki St, Newton, to November 25
TJ says: Artist and mathematician Peter James Smith shows 183 paintings, sculptures and collages on tea trays fixed to the wall. Each one is the visual expression of an artistic or philosophical idea. Joon Hee Park shows carefully illustrative paintings that define her dream world where the grotesque imaginings are pacified by ribbons and balloons.