Recent paintings by Reuben Paterson at Gow Langsford Gallery

By MALCOLM BURGESS

You cannot help reminiscing when you see the fruits of Reuben Paterson's latest artistic endeavours. Suddenly the world is glowing technicolour with sepia edges; the rose-tinted glasses of fashion glimpsed through an amber lens of sentiment and decay.

Shunning past obsessions with the animal forms of kowhaiwhai, his glittery canvases now feature designs torn from the fabric patterns of the 1960s, from the paisley of his late father's tie to the forms of Perrier-Jouet champagne flowers. Nevertheless, these bright, evocative signs of a time many of us still easily recall aren't so far removed from the Maori motifs that mention of Paterson's name most readily brings to mind.

Instead, they form a conduit to a sad family story, sparked by photographs of his maternal grandmother, who took her life long ago, in 1955. A family history of adoption explains Paterson's decision to look at her tribulations in a way that differs from his more traditional approach to his father's passing away, in his previous exhibition, entitled The Wharenui that Dad Built.

"The new paintings are from my mother's side," he says. "She comes from a line of adoption - Gran, Mum, and my full-blooded sister, whom my parents had at a very young age. Three generations of women whose adoptions were the result of pressures of the ages in which they reside."

Paterson describes his new, untitled exhibition at the Gow Langsford as a way of honouring his birth grandmother's life, giving a woman he never met - but who is part of his whakapapa - a fond farewell. It is also important that he restore her mana in the face of what might be perceived as a shameful exit from this world.

All the artworks in the show are composed of glitter dust and primer - Paterson's trademark touch. In the divertingly titled work, The pubic hair of Henenuitepo, you can - in a flash - understand his attraction to the medium. Despite the title, it's a dark work, redolent of black velvet and 70s Pacific kitsch but let your eyes adjust for a minute, and you'll soon see the stars come out. Although the work deals with death, the sparkling Pacific night sky seems to plot a course for whoever might be peering out of those dark palms at the gateway to the afterlife and into eternity. It's in keeping with Paterson's strong belief that the afterlife is "not something I need to fear".

At 29, Paterson already has a wide and acclaimed career. Having graduated from Elam in 1997, he was one of the youngest and only the second Maori artist to be selected for the Moet and Chandon Art Fellowship to France.

Since then he has been included in a number of significant museum exhibitions, most recently Techno Maori at the City Gallery/Pataka Art Museum in Wellington, Purangiaho: Seeing Clearly at the Auckland Art Gallery and The Koru and the Kowhaiwhai at the Pataka Art Museum.

While bubble-wrap doesn't exactly bring out the finer points of glitter-art, seeing it all wrapped and ready to leave home for the Gow Langsford Gallery added another dimension to the canvases lining the side-room of Paterson's Westmere duplex - as if they needed an opaque, rugged wrapping to dull their latent brilliance before the show.

A concrete koru path leads to his studio, a forge of stars, still shedding light from the aftermath of creating a gallery's worth of work.

While clearly infatuated by symbols, Paterson seems less certain about his work's relationship with words, which float in and out of the exhibition like echoes. Like countless artists before him such as Ralph Hotere and his Te Whiti series, Paterson has seen fit to complement his visuals with a poem by Sharon Whippy, a friend since he was 11, and a graduate of Witi Ihimaera and Albert Wendt's creative writing class at Auckland University.

"I love how poetry works with art," says Paterson. "It gives context back to the works."

Paterson says Whippy's poem is integral to the show in that it essentially describes "that unedited bit after the death" of his grandmother.

While the show is untitled, the works themselves take their names from overheard snippets of conversation, like Who do I have to shag to get out of here? or I'm not from India but I'd love to go. "There is no title to the exhibition as the titles themselves deliver enough in their wacky richness."

* Until May 31