Sarjeant Happenings: Whanganui Arts Review award-winners to speak about their work

Chris Connolly accepts the Open Award from Anne Pattillo at the 2022 Pattillo Whanganui Arts Review.

Past Possessive, Future Possessive (I) (Umpire Chair In Six Parts) by artist and furniture maker Chris Connolly won the Open Award at the 2022 Pattillo Whanganui Arts Review in November last year.

Connolly will talk about his work at Sarjeant on the Quay on Thursday, February 16 at 7.30pm with Tia Ranginui, whose photograph Murimuri Aroha won the Article Money Poppins Excellence Award, and Isabella Loudon, winner of the Dalgleish Architects Excellence Award for her piece Barbed.

Connolly’s beautiful, enigmatic work is the first in what will be a series themed, among other things, around power, language and ‘the abject’, or rejection of self. And yet, these themes and his mixed-media sculptural installations remain open to the unique interpretations viewers bring to them.

“I think language is one of these invisible power structures we are maybe not always aware of. Language has the power to surreptitiously form and validate a particular way of viewing the world. Sometimes I’ll think of a composition linguistically, like when you switch words around and start to read things differently through reworking [the words]. The reworking may be formally incorrect, but also reveals what is considered ‘correct’ and what that implies about our shared or personal understandings and values,” Connolly said.

Thrilled at having received the Open Award as a first-time entrant to the review, Connolly will work toward making a series of works for his 2025 Pattillo Project exhibition in the redeveloped Sarjeant Gallery at Pukenamu Queen’s Park. But the scale of the space is, as yet, unknown.

“Scale affects the way a person feels in the presence of a piece of work. It’s a very valuable tool and something I want to use.”

His award-winning work, for which he carved the wood of a poplar tree, cast a lead foot and incorporated brush bristles, has tall and small components. As a furniture maker, Connolly likes working with the light, strong poplar, which he says is not a popular timber and has “a really interesting smell like a decaying animal, not super-strong, but enough to make you recoil”.

Another theme in the series concerns the value people ascribe to things. In the world of furniture making, which is referenced in the work, he notes that attitudes have developed towards certain timbers, with some being valued over others.

“I love the idea that value is what you make it, and essentially is an intangible thing we sort of conjure up together in cultures. For me, ‘the abject’ and rejection of self can not be separated from power, relationships and value. That we are bound to a physical self and, despite our best efforts, cannot escape our own mortality is eternally relevant. When we recoil from the smell of decay, I believe we are also recoiling from our horror of death. So, both the visual and olfactory qualities of poplar are intertwined with some of the content I am exploring.”

Connolly has a background in spatial design, which he studied at the Auckland University of Technology before spending five years overseas. On his return, he became involved in visual disc-jockeying – combining moving images with music. He also studied at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in Wellington to further his interest in moving images and sound, exploring the use of choreography as his primary visual palette together with neighbouring New Zealand School of Dance students.

The talks promise to be stimulating and multi-faceted.

“I think that conceptually, the work is very sprawling. I’m quite happy for all these things to live together, sometimes conflicting, often open-ended and without resolution. And I like that people can come to a piece of work with their own filters.”

The Pattillo Whanganui Arts Review Winners’ Talk - Chris Connolly, Tia Ranginui, Isabella Loudon

Sarjeant on the Quay, Thursday, February 16 at 7.30pm. Hear from the 2022 winners of the three main awards as they talk about their winning work and its relationship to their current practice.

Price: Free, but please book on 06 349 0506 or at info@sarjeant.org.nz.