The galleries: Kaleidoscope along K Rd

By T.J. McNAMARA

Karangahape Rd is unique. Its former air of run-down seediness has lately been modified by a surge of growth in art galleries.

The public gallery Artspace led the way but now dealer galleries from all wavelengths of the art spectrum dot the avenue on the ridge. The latest is Dispute, the street-art gallery.

K Rd has always had a Polynesian presence. Samoa House - with its vast hall which must, in itself, be one of the most interesting buildings in Auckland - is the venue for an astonishing exhibition by a young Samoan artist.

The work of Penehuro Papali'i is remarkable for sheer quantity alone. The big hall has been subdivided into a maze of small rooms and a vast output of drawings, paintings, stained glass windows and mosaics cover walls and ceiling. Most astonishing of all are the huge carvings in wood.

Many of the drawings are student works.

An Italian artist, Ernesto Coter, set up an art school in Samoa and Papali'i was a gifted pupil. Copies of drawings of Old Masters were obviously on the curriculum. They are included, along with evidence of big conceptual leaps forward - such as the drawing of a bearded face with eyes shut, modelled by a mass of red contour lines that emphasise its sculptural, hieratic quality.

The many paintings are vivid in themselves, although the subject matter is stereotyped - forest scenes, mothers with children, women bathing. The handling is quick, lively and assured. The human forms are heavy but branches and foliage are swept easily into attractive patterns.

Much of the stained glass and mosaic is related to commissions for churches, for there is a strong religious feeling through most of the work. Yet the mighty carvings are not specially connected with Christianity.

Most impressive is The Bull, a life-size work mounted on a platform. The animal is sharply observed and a sense of power and strength is strongly conveyed. With one forefoot the bull tramples a human head. Its tongue emerges energetically and its horns are menacing.

What makes this sculpture both individual and a striking work of art is the way every form has been intricately carved with inventive patterns. The carving is precise and deep - it follows the shape but is in no way naturalistic, except perhaps around the barrel of the ribs.

The parallel is the way the abstract patterns of Samoan tattooing adorn the male torso and loins.

The triumphant, potent mass of the bull is mounted on a high platform adorned with flowers, in relief and brightly coloured. The platform has posts at each corner, making it even more of a ritual object.

Another big carving is of two boys on horseback. The mare they are riding has the deep patterns of maturity but her foal is smooth and juvenile. This piece is much more simply illustrative than the bull but still monumentally expressive.

The relief sculptures - such as The Assassination of Tamafaiga - are busy works, but the return to sculpture in the round found in Pilia'au - the legend of the human lizard - emphasises that carving concentrates all the powers of this bold and expressive artist.

Until the end of August.

The quirky variety of work along K Rd is emphasised by simply crossing the street to the Ivan Anthony Gallery, which is showing the recent work of Roger Mortimer until July 24.

He has made a name for himself among the knowing by reworking the documents of his life in Gothic lettering and illuminating them like medieval manuscripts.

The process is less autobiographical in these works. The texts for the elaborate and consistently beautiful lettering are taken from a lingerie catalogue. Given the handwritten treatment, it takes on a certain lyrical frisson.

"Underwired" has never sounded so significant.

Patterns of foliage accompany the text and there are little religious illustrations taken directly from early manuscripts except that the principal protagonist in each one has been changed from a man to a woman in bra and briefs.

There is often a felicitous match-up of text - a saint being pierced with the stigmata is noted as having "satisfaction guaranteed", and Mary is matched with a "full-figure bra".

Pale, blasphemous, clever, witty, knowledgeable, grindingly minute in detail but endlessly ironical, this work succeeds mostly by evoking wry admiration.

Irony and wit allied to a strong plastic sensibility are the characteristics of the work of Michael Parekowhai at the Michael Lett Gallery further along the street. His sculptural abilities are evident in the 43 polished oak versions of building blocks which are at once appealing still-life objects and an evocation of childhood games.

There are other games too. The urinal that Marcel Duchamp made famous as a work of art is here made an immense plastic toy with push-out parts so you can play the art game. Parekowhai's contribution is to make it monumental and to put it in the antipodes with the Maori title Mimi.

Duchamp is also referenced by transmuting his ready-made bicycle wheel into carefully crafted wood. There is no tyre. It is called After Dunlop.

There is only a short distance between this gallery and Samoa House but they are a world apart in style, intent and audience.