Arts review winners announced

Camerae Obscurae by Leonie Smith. PICTURES / JOAN STREET

JOAN: Last Friday marked the 30th presentation of awards to the winners of the Whanganui Arts Review. A large crowd gathered at the Pioneer Room, full of excitement and expectation. I had not visited the actual exhibition of entries in the Sarjeant Gallery. I prefer to do that quietly with no crowds and choose my own favourites. Last year we bought the winning entry, Yellow Melt by Andrea du Chatenier. I love it! Hopefully someone will gain the same satisfaction this year, winner and buyer! It was a most pleasant event. John Maihi there to bless it, waiata from the staff and a most interesting and explanatory judge, Karl Chitham, director of Tauranga Art Gallery. Awards were a fascinating mix. I look forward to seeing them at the gallery during this week.

I do, however, want to mention Tracy Byatt's winning entry, Beauty Is A Fading Flower, made totally of sugar. I happened to be sitting next to her father who was quite consumed with understandable pride, as was her mother who I saw later. Raewyne, our so lovely Sarjeant angel, said how pleased she was that a member of the Whanganui Community was recognised amongst our more known artists. I agree. Many congratulations, Tracy.

MIKE:

Throughout March, the exhibition at the Milbank Gallery features the latest work of Leonie Smith, based upon the 'camera obscura', or pinhole camera. The Latin phrase literally means "dark room/chamber", and it was the forerunner of the earliest cameras, a tiny hole at one end allowing light to enter and form an inverted image on the chamber's far wall. Leonie's unusual array of found items are dolls of various kinds — Japanese ladies, clowns, ladies in crinolines, revolving musical dolls among them — with the presence of a strange interloper — a sauce bottle! All have been painted black, with a small hole in the head. Of course, the figures are not actually taking photographs, but, as Bill Milbank put it, "conceptually gathering images of us, the viewers, inside their heads". The result of this would be that "the images would happen inside the minds of the viewers", according to an article reviewing the exhibition. This was not, I admit, the easiest of concepts for me to grasp.

Camerae Obscurae by Leonie Smith. PICTURES / JOAN STREET

Leonie explained to me how she had originally assumed that the dolls' heads would be empty, but, on finding stuffing or polystyrene balls inside them, she had cut off the heads, removed the inner material, made a small hole, then reattached the heads. "Why go to all that bother?" I asked. "Why not just simply put a hole in the outer surface?" "Because," she replied with an impish grin, "that would be dishonest." But does that matter, I thought, as I looked at the different items, if they are not actually functioning as cameras? Then I realised that of course it had to matter, for artistic verisimilitude. As regards the title of the exhibition,

Swingers and Multiple Pick-ups (extending the reach)

, I confess to finding that somewhat baffling too. Unfortunately I forgot to ask Leonie what it meant.

One of her main themes is the idea of 'flux', our 'constantly changing state of being'. To my mind, this references the saying of the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, 6th century BC, that "it is not possible to step twice into the same river". "Panta rhei", "everything flows", was his dictum, illustrating his conception of our constantly changing world, which produces a conflict between opposites, rest and calm on the one hand, turbulence on the other. This tension, as he saw it, was exemplified in war and peace, sickness and health, life and death, etc. For Leonie, this reflexive process "allows us, the viewers, to enter into a state of flux". When we notice the pinholes, we are "briefly disorientated, thrown into flux, like rabbits in the headlights of our subjectivity". Fascinating!

JOAN: The Royal Whanganui Opera House will be full of sound from Friday, March 23 to Sunday, March 25. Not unusual you might think. However, we are invited to attend a musical feast provided by international composer Susan Frykberg, Australian soprano Judith Dodsworth and our very own Ingrid Culliford and Elise Goodge ... and, of course, you. I enjoyed Susan's performances the last time she was in Whanganui and especially her silent walk around town with a willing group of us — a "soundscape" which allowed us to listen to the sounds around us far more intently.
Over the second weekend of the Artists Open Studios we are invited to invent music with our phones, explore the shapes of sounds and take part in workshops and performances presented by this so talented group 'AaSaA' — Art As Sound As Art. This will be a step of faith for many and a joy for all. Tickets are at the I-Site and the Opera House. See you there!

MIKE: In conjunction with Artists Open Studios, a new exhibition by Vanessa Edwards is running at Space Gallery throughout this month. Titled The Kereru and the Woodpecker, it consists of nine works of intaglio and screenprint, in limited editions of two. In each a colourful bird is facing a duplicate image of itself, in quieter, pastel shades. Of Ngati Tuwharetoa lineage, Vanessa attended an International Indigenous Visual Arts Gathering in America last year, the 40 Maori representatives being the largest group numerically. During the time she spent there, she created several images on the kereru and woodpecker theme, which evolved into the title of this present show, involving four areas linked with different meanings of "absent" or "absence". "Absent" is the keynote of "Out of sight out of mind" and "Absence makes the heart grow fonder", two very familiar phrases. Being absent physically is the most obvious meaning, but less so is "mentally", whether it arises from a deliberate refusal to accept a situation or simply a lack of understanding or imagination. The salient situation for Vanessa in this case is her cultural heritage. In the artist's statement she tells us that "I see my role as artist to be culturally responsive as a means to place these images and symbols in plain sight as a reminder of its (ie, cultural heritage) importance".
"Day of Absence" is an American tradition from the 1970s when coloured students could choose not to attend school that day as a means of silent protest, via absenteeism, against such problems as race relations and human rights. Thus we have a further development in political absence. The fourth area, "Pick up sticks", a reference to the children's game, is presented in a different format, with sticks of varying colours piled against each other, resembling a small tree. Branches of trees, however, generally contain birds, but here there are none. Once again, absence is hinted at, this time in relation to the environment of birds being affected by humans.
It is an attractive and thought — provoking exhibition, "absence" offering food for thought.

Suggestions and comments to mjstreet@xtra.co.nz