Gateway to the Soul

A recent post from Peter Peryer along with my visit to the Wayne Barrar show at DPAG, has got me thinking again about the nature of photography as art.

In my own mind photography is art. Hanging about in a gallery stock room today with Laurence Aberhart and Ben Cauchi works just reiterated this to me. Peryer’s work is certainly art.

So why do I have more trouble in the equally as beautiful photos of Ans Westra and some of  Wayne Barrar‘s work? I see these as a possibly a cross into documentary and photo journalism. Marti Friedlander perhaps spans this? Perhaps there is no difference at all.

My reaction to art is often emotional. Photography as an art form is the perfect illustration of art being a way of seeing the world through another’s eyes.  Maybe my issue with more documentary type photos is that it is just what my eye might see, the more artistic photography is something I might never see for myself…I am not sure if that makes any sense. Also all the artists I have mentioned have a great range and there is no defining them really.

I was thinking about Anne Noble’s “In the Presence of Angels” series last week too. I like the blurring of definitions and realities there. Maybe this series appeals because in my loud and busy life, the apparent calm and simple quiet of the convent seems very desirable.

Anne Noble. The Walled Garden of the Enclosure. 1989. silver gelatin print

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Facing Mortality

Various circumstances have led me to think quite a bit about mortality lately, but rather than facing it, it has been more of a quick glance in that general direction. I guess it hit with a bump when I realised that ukulele playing will be out of the question – at least for a while, or until someone comes up with a nice metal finger tip like Ada’s.

I recall the Anne Noble exhibition “States of Grace” and how disturbing my partner found the images of her recently deceased father. I thought the whole show very moving. Just illustrates how images impact differently. Along these lines I was going to ask some artist if they could make something out of my current journey and the likely impending loss of a finger. When I visited David Cauchi, he showed me drawings of hands and said “because, you know, your hand is always there” and I thought at the time “well maybe not all of it”. So this would be pretty gross to some, as would another friendly suggestion involving bone jewellery.

So I’ve been looking for other art involving loss and trying not to look at that involving death, but all roads seem to lead to Rome. I am hoping to get back to Te Manawa before we leave the region and look what’s on there, “Dispelling the Myth”. This thought provoking exhibition considers various attitudes towards dying and death” . Thankfully the also have  “Solid Gold: Classic Hits from the Rutherford Trust Collection”,  which includes a Clairmont I want to see – especially since I didn’t get to look at the blue self portrait at the Art+Auction preview in Wellington – and those wonderful Fomisons. I suppose if you are looking at mortality in art, Fomison would do the trick and maybe this one especially for me right now.

Study of hands on page 235 of “Roxburgh’s Common Skin Diseases” 12th edition 1961 (#51)

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Hearing voices

Voices and Echoes: recent work by Peter Peryer is on (and on-line) from April 2-30 at the McNamara Gallery. I shall refrain from reproducing images here but go take a look. That ice cream cone is just disturbing while the Black Swan is an image from my childhood. Also the picture of Dunedin’s First Church looks nothing like New Zealand and kind of sinister, a really startling viewpoint! eyeContact has more opinions (apologies for covering the same ground).

I said here a while back that photography captures a moment and I’ve realised this is true of staged photos as well as ‘snaps’. Even if you staged the same thing again and again, the image would be different in some way.

William’s Field No. 4 (2002) Anne Noble

Over the net mentioned the Art + Object catalogue today and I agree they are wonderful things. I get my fix on the freely available on-line .pdf though. I do wonder about the copyright issues. Why can an auction house get consent for a published catalogue of items up for sale, when galleries don’t make many images available promotion of exhibitions or from their collections? Do the auction houses pay? Are the artists (estates) just happy the items are selling? Can someone enlighten me about the laws in play here?

I’ve also been wondering a lot about curators and the whole ‘curatorial experience’ and how exhibition or shows come into being and whether there is really a direct link at all (there must be?). I was talking to someone briefly the other day who knows about such things and they said “I’ve always thought a show of XXX at YYY would be a great idea“. I expanded the idea a little and have a concept in mind that might fly, so now…..I guess like many good ideas that’s the end of it. I’ve heard the same story about various projects lately – maybe some of them will come to fruition?

How’s that for symbolism in art ?

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