Culture

To enter Quadrant Gallery is to experience a serene, mesmerising atmosphere. Located on Moray Place, Quadrant showcases and sells jewellery, sculpture and other such objects. Immediately I was hypnotised by Nicole McLaren’s apocalyptic sculptures, which are constructed from ceramic, plaster and textiles. McLaren’s works engage with themes such as death and decay. Appearing textural and yet skeletal, deathly albatross heads emerge from heavily-draped regal cloaks with inserted panelling. Passage 33 and Passage 18 previously formed part of a larger exhibition, which included 24 other such sculptures. The panel on Passage 33 appears to contain fragmentary remnants of pollution, with the drapery of the textile cloak appearing withered and as though it was a protective form of encasement rather than being purely decorative.

Apples is a series of ceramic apples covered in abrasions, as though they were rotting. Some are half-eaten, revealing a flowery texture and undesirable taste. McLaren thus subverts typical presentations of apples, for example the superficial glow of domestic fake apples and those presented in the supermarket. Devoid of “biblical temptation”, McLaren presents apples as living organisms slowing rotting to death.
 
Paying homage to Hamlet’s ill-fated love Ophelia, McLaren’s Chariot for Ophelia serves as a memento mori with a ceramic funeral chariot carrying a wagon filled with intricately-carved flowers. Hidden amongst the flowers is the appearance of a skull. Chariot for Ophelia creates unease, as it is reminiscent of Sir John Everett Millais’s haunting Ophelia (1851-52) and it gently entices the viewer to contemplate their own mortality.
 
Similarly to McLaren’s apples, Blue Black’s hanging sculpture The Gap Between investigates biological decay. The Gap Between deceptively tricks the viewer into believing they are seeing corrugated iron; it is in fact a ceramic. It’s as if bold colours have emerged while the rust develops, adding a nice juxtaposition to the plain corroded springs attached to it. Faceless, distorted and frightening, Blue Black’s Winged figure draw upon the strong but irrational fear of the monsters existing under our beds we have as children. The monster is highly textural, as though lacerations cover its body.  The wings are made of bed springs, reinforcing the bumps-in-the-night figments of childhood fantasy.
 
Robert Rapson’s BMW Cabrio and Bently Brooklands ceramic cars channel boyhood dreams while captivating the eye with their expressionistic use of line and colour. The use of free-flowing lines, contour and colour creates an autonomous coarseness, yet is balanced by the use of figurative elements.
 
The jewellery of David McLeod also channels boyhood nostalgia. Producing work that is delicate, detailed and intimate, McLeod has rediscovered childhood toys, from simple small-scale bricks to matchsticks. Using Lego-like bricks marked “ADAMS”, McLeod’s brick series is extremely wearable, regardless of gender. Entwining twig-like matchsticks, some of which appear burnt, McLeod’s extensive matchstick series is also somewhat textural, while also achieving simplicity and lightness.
 
Quadrant Gallery is only a small distance from the confines of North Dunedin, and with so many other great exhibitions recently opened, a visit would be an afternoon well spent and undoubtedly a good study break. Be sure to also check out Pieter Hugo’s Nollywood at the DPAG, Motoko Kikkiawa’s Money you can’t use here at Rice and Beans and Andy Leleisi’uao’s The World of Erodipolis at Milford Gallery.