Culture

Dunedin Community Gallery, 20 Princes Street
15-29 February
Rob Piggott’s “Loop Series” works 1999-2012

You can’t help but be impressed by the bold nature of the “Loop Series”, a collection of paintings by Dunedin-based artist Rob Piggott. Large canvases, cut into interesting but seemingly senseless shapes, feature bright blocks of colour - scarlet reds, azure blues, mustard yellows and pale pinks - juxtaposed with spiraling lines that swirl energetically across abstract space. The name of the series is apt, as each painting within the group displays the looping curls that have featured in one form or another throughout Piggott’s career.

It began as a fascination and experimentation with shapes - which marked Piggott’s paintings from the 1980s - but only during the 1990s did this evolve into a fully-fledged focus on the spiral shape. Representative of the fluid rhythm and movement of life, the spiral emerged as a significant motif in Piggott’s artwork, eventually transforming into the quirky loops seen in his current exhibition. Piggott spends a great deal of time shaping his canvases into their unique forms and outlines before actually painting on them, then uses acrylic and oil-stick on canvas to achieve the look and colour of the “Loop Series”.

The response to the series has been mixed. Piggott notes that among the many positive reviews, he at times receives comments that remark disparagingly on the simplicity of the paintings. However it is this simplicity that he strives for in his work. Indeed, it is one of the three self-proclaimed elements of his art, alongside “emotional content” and “patience”. Asked to explain what he means by “patience” Piggott explains that the thought process behind his work is far more complex than it may at first seem. Subtlety is what makes his paintings so unique and intriguing, and it takes patience - a lot of looking, Piggott remarks with a chuckle - for people to see the emotional thrust behind what may at first appear to be “standard” artwork. In particular, Piggott refers to the act of viewing his paintings as a kind of “meditation”; and indeed, absorbing yourself in the abstract curves and coils that spiral across such carefully crafted canvases does appear to be a sort of visual experience of patience; a quieting exploration for meaning.

And exactly what meaning is there to be gleaned? While he strongly believes his art should always be open to the interpretation of the individual viewer, Piggott has his own ideas on what his energetic loops convey. The visual exploration of human consciousness and sub-consciousness is expressed through conflicting colours and twisting lines that hint at the hidden turmoil of the mind and of human life, beneath the veneer of civility and sensibility often shown to the world. It is this mask of so-called normality that Piggott sees as being visually represented by a perfectly straight line, the ultimate visual demonstration of precision and control.

The exhibition displays an incredible thirteen years’ worth of Piggott’s loop work. Whether or not he will continue to work with this same motif is for the moment uncertain, though Piggott emphasizes that he would never close himself off completely from the idea. With a good-natured shrug, he explains that after all, those constantly looping lines have “never-ending potential, like everything”.