Culture

Blue Oyster Project Space

With the potential to both repel and capture the viewer, Justin Spires’ photographs in his Castleland exhibition enable the viewer to feel as though they are sneaking into and infiltrating an array of fortresses. Castleland is formulated around the purpose of a castle; to deter those on the outside and protect those on the inside. The exhibition consists of a video installation of an abandoned Australian theme park and eighteen photos of castles, ranging from a Chinese theme park to Dunedin’s Larnach Castle. Castleland highlights the dichotomy between castles (both imaginary and real or “traditional”) and contemporary domestic spaces that are equipped with digital and infrared surveillance equipment. In each image, there is a foreboding sense of enclosure and repulsion, an idea which playfully subverts the fairy tale ideal of a “castle”.
 
In Skeleton (China) (2010) the emaciated bones of a decimated castle continue to dominate a barren Chinese landscape. Despite its cadaverous exterior, it possesses a mysterious enchantment that draws the eye’s gaze, causing one scours the picture plane in search of any hidden dangers. Because it was hopeless, I turned my face towards you and let you colour my skin (2010) features a decrepit and defaced castle, which is eerily disquieting. It’s as though its darkened and forgotten walls are watching you. With the word “Nazi” and a poorly rendered swastika defacing the castle, it eludes a sinister quality, beckoning the curious eye to enter. As though one is wearing night vision goggles, I fall into you (2011) allows the viewer to feel as though they are in a Special Ops unit about to infiltrate a carefully guarded fortress.
 
Also recently opened at the Blue Oyster is Storage Systems by Margaret Feeney, and Ro Bradshaw’s Please God, let me children grow and live happily ever after.