The Galleries: Tight reins and trick riding

By T J McNAMARA

The poet Roy Campbell said about some of his fellow writers, "You praise the restraint with which they write,/ I'm with you there, of course:/ They use the snaffle and the curb all right,/ But where's the bloody horse?"

The problem for an artist of getting the horsepower into work intended for a domestic setting is a perennial one. The answer may be in restraint, style and "taste". Or it may be colour, cleverness, keeping it bright, inventive but not too challenging.

This week in Parnell we have pleasant exhibitions that show both approaches. The recent painting by Bridget Bidwell at Artis Gallery until May 23 is considered, ordered and delicate. She places domestic objects - vases, bowls, curtains - against the light, stylises their shapes, organises a system of verticals and horizontals to play against the curves, brings the colour together in elegant tonalities of brown and blue, and makes fine decorative paintings.

The works are admirable but unchallenging. Only once in the show is there a sense of adventure when the horse is let loose to gallop. It is a work called Beacon, where a circular area of red shines out crossed by a dark form, surrounded by shade but, nevertheless, strong, firm and forceful.

The other approach of parading the horse but not letting it run a consistent race can be seen in the lively work of Maurie Angelo at Fishers Fine Art until May 11.

Sometimes he jumps to bright abstract expressionist works (Gotto 1-3) that hint at the doors of perception, opening portals to blue spaces in a red world. At other times he stitches up the canvas in the way of some Italian painters.

At one time he refers to Maori mythology in Aunt's Fingers, and at another he is "referencing" Rembrandt's painting of Dr Tulp conducting an anatomy lesson. In this dark painting, a little bit of lace gives it a Dutch flavour.

The result of all this parade is a lively exhibition of works that are extremely clever but without a persistent overriding idea. Among all the variety - which contains some trivial work, including one called 4 Sure and C Bed - three strong works impress. All at One Point, The Light Years and A sign in space show that Maurie Angelo can gather his forces together and put his horse over substantial jumps.

Marie Shannon, at the Sue Crockford Gallery until May 15, doesn't put much money on the horse but saves her betting for photographs of the horse in training. In her exhibition the emphasis is also on process and concept. She makes sculpture from felt.

She raises ordinary footwear to the status of sculpture by crafting them in totally impractical felt and putting them on a pedestal. It is more than a bit like Jasper Johns' Ale Cans, though they were done in 1962 and in bronze.

Here, Shannon insists that art is detached and has no practical value, yet she also uses colourful felt to make 50 or more bags.

The remarkable thing about the show is that groups of four technically excellent photographs of the patterns for the bags and the shoes are priced much more highly than the objects themselves.

The record of the process and the concept is more highly valued than the achieved works.

This is in keeping with the artist's long history of challenging endeavour in photography, but also stands art on its head. It is trick riding, more circus than race and more pony than horse.