Culture

The Dowling Street Project, a two-day exhibition August 13 & 14

Group show: Anya Sinclair, Craig Freeborn, Dominique Papoutsou, Emma Johansson, Flynn Morris-Clarke, Mishca Rhys-Hill, Sally Hill and Sally Shephard
 
The recent two-day exhibition at the Dowling Street Project featured painting, photography, sculpture and music. The often under-utilised gallery space was warm with both energy and a bustling array of different artistic practices: at one point two of the musicians performed wearing sculptures by Mischa Rhys-Hill that had previously been hanging on the wall.
 
One felt immediately drawn to the paintings of Craig Freeborn. Freeborn’s Figure on Table (2011) features a headless - presumably male - figure with his arms tied behind his back and then blanketed by roughly dispersed paint, revealing sporadic shards of ‘pop’ colour. Texturally solid, the work communicates both psychological intensity and an absorbing atmospheric darkness. Freeborn’s work is a dialogue between order and chaos, and the physical and the emotional. In The Inevitable Shoot (2011), he presents another headless figure, although this time the figure is obviously female. Freeborn has assaulted the canvas with paint using a range of techniques including splattering and dripping, with the trickling red paint resembling spilt blood. The more figurative and psychological elements of Freeborn’s works are reminiscent of Seraphine Pick, and the more chaotic, rhythmic properties of his work are similar to techniques employed by Dunedin painter Anya Sinclair, who also showed in this exhibition.
 
Flynn Morris-Clarke’s beautiful paintings captivated one’s eye through the incredibly layered and glossy application of oil paint. His two works - both referred to as Untitled (2011) - depict Clarke dressed in drag, modelling himself upon Andy Warhol’s drag queen muse, Candy Darling. Both works explore the notion of masculinity, subverting the idea of a ‘fixed’ gendered identity and resonating with a post-Warholian conception of ‘self’.
 
Emma Johansson’s strange yet adorable sculpture creatures in Plypps (2011) and Plypps Journey (2011) were characterised by a soft playfulness that enabled them to be easily engaged with. Plypps consisted of small otherworldly creatures congregating upon surfaces made by Johansson. Plypps Journey presents these same creatures on a journey, campfire and all. Johansson’s animations were also adorable, reminiscent of many anime productions from Studio Ghibli, most notably My Neighbour Totoro.