Place to dissect the past

By T.J. McNAMARA

The public galleries in Auckland have a special function in mounting exhibitions that would simply not be commercial propositions for dealer galleries. Just now three of the public galleries offer enormous food for thought.

At Lopdell House in Titirangi (until July 20), the demolition of an old hospital in Southland has triggered a fascinating exhibition that, among other things, raises questions about the relationship of art and craft.

This show was conceived during photographer Margaret Dawson's tenure as the William Hodges' Fellow in Southland. The residency was based near a historic hospital in Invercargill which became the focus of the work of 13 South Island artists featured in this exhibition. A suite of her photographs is the high spot of the show.

In the old hospital there were etchings by the popular Dutch 19th-century artist Jozef Israels, a member of the Hague School of painters that depicted the life of the poor. Van der Velden, who came to New Zealand, was a member of the same group which had an enormous influence on the early painting of Van Gogh. Dawson has taken buildings in Southland and staged reconstructions of Israels' etchings.

Her photographs in sepia make a remarkable group. Shawled heads, bare feet, old hands, deathbed scenes and simple piety are cleverly shown recreating the sentiment of the past.

One of the most impressive photographs recreates a quilting group: appropriately, quilts are important in the craft section of this show, the most striking being a patchwork picture of a nurse, also by Dawson.

The exhibition further encompasses pictures in cross-stitching and some delicate drawn-thread work done on a bandage. Also hovering on the edge of sentimentality but not falling over into it are paintings by Sue Awunor-Renner.

Her works use an unusual technique of ink, bleach and wax to achieve strong effects of light and mood, particularly in Night Light which is like an illustration to an Edgar Allan Poe story and more aptly to the theme Surgery by Natural Light.

On the other side of the town at Pakuranga at te tuhi there is a lavish show called Portraiture (until July 22). The curator, Rhoda Fowler, has cast a wide net and produced an exceptionally rich and varied exhibition. These are not direct, commemorative portraits like the recent image of Sir Edmund Hillary but works that through their style make a generalisation about society and history. The show is subtitled The Art of Social Commentary.

Some artists extend the idea of a portrait to include the nature of depiction and portraiture itself.

Lisa Reihana shows a video that is a series of short tales about a photographer making portraits of Maori in the 19th century. Portraits are the subject but mythologising is the theme. The endeavour to make a picture of the killing of a moa is very funny, but the short piece about the only Maori woman present at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi would move a heart of stone with its emphasis on European paper and Maori earth.

Reihana is herself the subject of a splendid traditional likeness on a spectacular scale by Martin Ball. There is fascinating realism, too, in the special take on the mother and child theme from Zarahn Southon. Other work ranges from a sculpture that is an oxygenating apparatus done in memory of his handyman father by Paul Cullen, to bright, polished images of wide-eyed models by Peter Stitchbury and a scroll inscribed with ironic words about intergenerational conflict by Mary-Louise Browne.

There are some good photos, too, of the cast of the Michael Hurst production of Hamlet by Patrick Reynolds and some clever, if sour, photo-montage by Ava Seymour who continues her Rubber Love series of folk in fetish gear to depict the Seven Deadly Sins as portraits of a society peopled by freaks.

One surprise is two works by Seraphine Pick, who has put aside her oblique style to make deftly drawn pictures of animals, a monkey and a rabbit that powerfully convey a sense of human personality.

The third public gallery is Artspace in Karangahape Rd where there is a retrospective exhibition of works by Daniel Malone until July 5. This show is artistically incestuous since the artist is always playing off his position against the work of some previous artist or, in one instance, a namesake.

In a note to the little catalogue of the show he extends his "love to the haters and non-believers" of his work. They will be legion. It is warmed-over stuff.

First, he has recycled platforms from the previous exhibition at Artspace but included Diane Prince's New Zealand flag to be trampled on yet again.

He has also adopted the name Billy Apple and recapitulated Apple's Cleaning Work from 1971 so you can admire the bucket and rags used. There are videos, too: horseplay in bondage gear at a party. You had to be there. And in the interests of multicultural understanding, the artist trying to look Chinese and walking backwards down a street.

The only interesting image in the whole show is a photo of the softness of breast and nipple contrasted with a crowbar, and that's borrowed, too. It is necessary for the garment of art to have a lunatic fringe. This one literally trails among the rubbish.