Ithell Colquhoun, Surrealism and the Occult
I finished reading Amy Hale’s excellent biography of Ithell Colquhoun a couple of weeks ago (Hale, A (2020) Genius of the Fern Loved Gully: The Super Sensual Life of Ithell Colquhoun Strange Attractor Press, London: England). It was more information about Colquhoun in one big hit than I’d got in months of sorting through bits…
Symbolism of the Pelican
I use plenty of symbolism in my work but generally I don’t like to be too explanatory or didactic with it. I would like the imagery to affect the viewer in a more subtle way; triggering memories and associations rather than being ‘read’. People do ask me for more insight into the symbols I use…
Hendrix Hennessy-Ropiha: We can travel only a short way together
I came across a group exhibition called “A Moment of Quiet” when I went to visit James Gilberd, curator at Photospace Gallery in Wellington last week. I was looking through the works and was stopped in my tracks by a work in Hendrix Hennessy-Ropiha’s collection “We can travel only a short way together”. The large…
Terminus – Jess Johnson and Simon Ward
A VERY overdue post as I went to see this show at Tauranga Art Gallery this time last year! I was looking at some of the pictures from the show and thought I should really write a bit about it, if only to order my own thinking. Dan and I made a road trip down…
The pithy descriptor
There is a truly gigantic photographic show on at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki right now called “Civilisation” which, unsurprisingly, examines human impact and interaction. I wanted to practice my ability to write succinct and useful descriptions of work in 2 sentences or less. This is something Gilda Williams talks about in her excellent…
Beauty, Terror and the Sublime
The Sublime is not strictly speaking something which is proven or demonstrated, but a marvel, which seizes one, strikes one, and makes one feel.Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux The passion caused by the great and Sublime in nature, when those causes operate most powerfully is astonishment, and astonishment is that state of the soul in which all its…
“The Forge and the Crucible” & “The Basilian Aphorisms”
The demiurgic dreams of metallurgists and alchemists. This past week I read two interesting texts centred around alchemy; the first was The Forge and The Crucible: The Origins and Structures of Alchemy (1956) by Romania historian, philosopher and writer Mircea Eliade. I thoroughly enjoyed his take on the origins of human interaction with metal and…
The useful art of dealing with critique
A family member is studying design at present and is taking on the daunting task of being critiqued by her tutors and peers. It’s something we all go through if we are in the creative fields and while it may seem daunting, critique can be one of the most beneficial experiences for your practice. I’ve…
Text-based Research May 2019
To go along with my image collection I usually create mind maps examining certain themes and ideas within the work. I wrote a statement that I think sums up much of what goes on in the work: Communication of otherworldly experience requires a symbolic language due to the ephemeral and unexplainable nature of the phenomena….
Mary MacGregor-Reid 