Culture

Oliver van der Lugt, Claire Mahoney & Tom Garden. Blue Oyster Art Project Space

Traversing the alleyway entrance to the Blue Oyster art project space, one encounters the work of three very different artists, all of whom investigate a type of environment. The thread binding the show together is each artist’s use of space. The exhibition features the work of three fresh graduates from the Dunedin art school; Tom Garden (Critic’s own resident illustrator), Claire Mahoney and Oliver van der Lugt. The show was curated by Emily Palmer, who is a recent graduate from the Art History department at Otago.
 
The first work is Oliver van der Lugt’s Shade (after A.F), which is easily the most challenging piece in the show. Lugt’s multisensory site-specific work plays upon the industrial dungeon-like appearance of the Blue Oyster. The room has been subtlety manipulated to great effect. Shade (after A.F.) consists of an automatic air freshener dispersing the familiar sickly smell of vanilla, its packaging and an additional florescent light. The movement-activated air freshener unsettles and disturbs one’s sense of smell. The use of a florescent light creates a sense of order similar to what one experiences in a supermarket, guided by such light down a sparse aisle of domestic ‘fragrances’. The artificiality of the light disrobes the eye’s vulnerability.
 
Claire Mahoney’s Indoor Outdoor Flow examines and subverts different modes of display, such as a museum’s curatorial hand, the domestic and the commercial. One is forced to examine each work, as Mahoney has both obstructed the viewer’s path and placed the work out of the viewer’s peripheral vision, meaning one must walk around it to investigate it. The space features two cascading cellophanes looming above and encasing the other works. I wanted to walk through the cellophane but it was not designed for interaction. Almost reminiscent of an old weighing scale, Mahoney’s makeshift scale is composed of a clothing rack holding a delicate piece of glass. The glass dangles by the thread of a fishing wire, with a framed image in the centre and two pieces of unfired clay in between. It is displayed in a manner similar to that of both a domestic and commercial environment. Indoor Outdoor Flow also features a collage mounted upon the wall, like a museum.
 
Tom Garden’s i-Mod explores how humans are manipulated by technology. The eye is hypnotised by the use of bold colour, which accentuates the figures in each of his carefully crafted digital illustrations. i-Mod consists of three digital illustrations placed side by side in the lower gallery. The figures in each are faceless, with contorted technological body parts merging through each figure’s neck. One appears to be in agony, another as if it were attempting to move like a human and another as though it was a zombie. This final figure expresses Garden’s exploration of the technologically manipulated society that we live in. The arguably sexless figures demonstrate Garden’s ability to capture autonomy through the heavily detailed choice of colour and line and dynamic positioning of each figure. As though in a science fiction film, Garden presents images which serve as a reminder about the way technology is rapidly advancing and changing how society functions.
 
This exhibition runs until the August 20.