Velvet vistas and the indifference of nature

Hannah Beehre's galactic works will beam you up.

This Canterbury artist and designer keeps a close eye on the images beamed in from the far reaches of our galaxy and beyond.

These aloof and watery pictures are captivating even before you consider their remoteness in space and time, as the action captured in Hannah Beehre's acrylic and dye on velvet paintings occurred in the faraway past of another epoch.

Her larger works depict relatively local nebulas glowing ominously in our very own spiral arm of the Milky Way, while some of her smaller pictures illustrate impossibly distant lone galaxies.

One drawback of Beehre's new collection is that it's impossible to photograph accurately.

This is partly attributable to the almost iridescent qualities of the velvet and the dancing sparkles reflecting from the Swarovski crystals Beehre installs to pick out individual stars.

"The nebulas are reminiscent of ancient Renaissance depictions of creation and hellfire - it's as if we've imagined these images long before we ever saw them," says Beehre, an Olivia Spencer Bower Trust Award recipient and former Scott Base artist in residence.

This latest interstellar collection sees Beehre continuing to conjure meaning and motive from the more volatile corners of nature.

Her past work picked out hidden facets and colours in some of the world's most famous jewels.

The chequered history of many of the gems added a sinister note to these intricate and otherwise decorative colour pencil drawings.

Following the Christchurch quakes her series of charcoal and dye volcanic eruptions on paper questioned nature's "spiritual intent".

"It felt like we were standing on top of a monster," she says of her experience living through the quakes.

Her latest show explores the concept of "the natural world being aware of us, a consciousness of nature".

Although it may sound far-fetched, that creeping feeling of insignificance is familiar to many of us who have run into the malicious indifference of the infinite.

"It's like there are other stories behind these images that are only hinted at," she says.

Beehre's latest show, at the Jonathan Smart Gallery in Christchurch, is hanging throughout this month.

It is her first solo exhibition at the gallery that has supported her work for a decade. "Jonathan Smart gives you so much freedom and scope. I can take a lot of risks."

Beehre finds far-off images for her new work from a range of sources.

There are the images from Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter searching for water, among other things, during its constant laps of the red planet.

Then there are complex composite images covering different light ranges captured by some of the world's largest land-based radio telescope arrays, including the European Southern Observatory in Chile.

Beehre all but replicates these pictures, but the unpredictable flow of the dye betrays the artist's hand.

Astute astronomers will be able to identify some of the nebulas and galaxies before they look at the work's title which gives the name of the celestial subject.

Happy star gazing!