Effort is a word I often associate with art.
The artist makes the supreme effort of bringing about the artwork and, in this age of easy scrolling, it takes effort for the audience to stroll to the exhibition.
It also takes effort on the part of volunteers who staff the ARIs (Artist-Run Initiatives) and public spaces, as I realised on two successive attempts to view the exhibitions at RM Gallery, only to find the door firmly closed. I was hoping to see the ceramic works of Sung Hwan Bobby Park, an artist who is rightly receiving plenty of attention for his queer viewpoint of military service and Korean handcrafts.
A significant portion of his practice reimagines military helmets with the inverted vessel-shape becoming a platform that projects the crazy thoughts inside the head it protects. On one, waving tongues spill past chunky teeth splattered with shiny glaze; on another, twisted horns are adorned with shrines of spikey zip-ties. One helmet is covered in hundreds of corn kernels, each one a blob of clay that’s been flattened and pinched into shape by hand. The effort in time and imagination is fascinating.
Battling spring weather down Karangahape Road and on to Two Rooms in Putiki Street, was rewarded with the warm, still paintings of Jude Rae. These small, square works play with the way we look at images. Using the traditional still-life format, Rae makes the act of painting and what it depicts visible simultaneously. Lines running from background and into the foreground can be read as a reflection on the surface and as a continuation of the painted line. The orange lip of a shelf is also the coloured ground exposed, showing us the process of this painterly construction.
With a little effort, we can see the paint in the act of becoming the illusion of a scene.
Good art looks even better in real life. I’m glad I made the effort to get off the couch!
EVAN WOODRUFFE, Studio Art Supplies
www.studioart.co.nz
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Published: September 2023