Culture

Resident artists, Dowling St project
After walking up such an enormous staircase, excited about what lay inside, I found myself leaving filled with disappointment. Gazing across any group show rarely makes me feel as though I have just been defibrillated. However, upon leaving I had barely any reaction to the work, other than feeling it was aesthetically tolerable and rather banal.
 
This isn’t to say that these artists are not extremely talented, they truly are; I just wanted or, rather, expected more. Sam Foley and Craig Freeborn’s video installation Green belt boy racer (Queens Drive and beyond) induced initial repulsion from the use of music by AC/DC, emphasising the vulgarity of boy racer culture. It consisted of a video shot from a driver’s point of view, occasionally verging on being out of control. The work attempted to create a highly interactive experience, yet it unfortunately lacked the intimacy necessary to create that kind of connection with the viewer.
 
With a dummy’s arms limping from the second storey, followed by a splatter of pieces of tape resembling gushing spew, Freeborn’s Pukeihontas installation was refreshingly humorous. However, Freeborn’s painting The Waiting Room inscribed technical inconsistencies, such as tonal and compositional errors, although I appreciated his light-hearted playfulness and the obvious skill demonstrated in both works.
 
Painter Jo Robertson’s Puriri Moth (2010) and Eyes (2010) were the strongest aspects of the show. Robertson’s paintings express a duality between emotional intensity and carefully rendered skill. Both works register as being extremely feminine and personal, as well as being entrenched in textural dynamism and exuding a playful lightness. Stylistically both convey elements of chiaroscuro.
 
Anya Sinclair’s Giverny Gold (2010) catapulted one’s gaze through a thick forest of distorted blues and violets to a mysterious figure. Sinclair’s picture delicately balanced innocence with an indescribable sense of uneasiness. However, the brain faltered to a blank upon seeing the rather novice “cut and paste” works by Sinclair and Aaron Hawkins.
 
I encountered a similar experience upon encountering Alan Ibel’s sculptures, which appeared trite and without substance.  In comparison to his sculptures, Ibel’s illustrations - particularly After The Rain and Still life - were perfection in their simplistically ordinary observations. The juxtaposition between the moving and stilted image investigated in Sacha Lauchlan’s Triptych presented the spectator with a sense of maternal fragility. The work is beautiful and encased within a religious context; the body of Christ and the body of the believer. Appearing as though they were witness to a murder, Sally Anne Shepherd’s works proved to be a haunting addition to the exhibition.
 
The Dowling Street project is another space designed to circumvent the structures of public and private galleries, merely by the fact that it is an artist-run space. It is one of a growing number of spaces appearing and evolving in Dunedin. The April Fool’s show undervalues the creativity and immense skill many of the resident exhibiting artists have. Hopefully the next show they have will evince an output of works of higher calibre.