Art seen: January 24

(Milford Gallery)

Yuki Kihara continues and completes her “Track About Samoa”, a collection of narratives introduced in a number of units starting in 2019.

Within the final two components, “Taiheiyō (Pacific)” and “Tūlī’s Flight”, Kihara makes use of the imagery of Japanese cult science fiction and migratory birds to discover the interconnectedness of human exercise with particular deal with the geopolitics of neo-colonialism, trade and air pollution.

As with the sooner components of the “Track”, the artist’s Samoan and Japanese heritage is invoked by formal kimonos constructed from siapo material. On this floor, the artist has created two panoramas. Within the first, the movie King Kong vs Godzilla is used as an analogy for the devastation attributable to the 2011 tsunami and subsequent leak of radioactive materials from the Fukushima energy station. Within the second collection, the migratory flight of plovers is paralleled by the flight of plane, and can be seen as an analogy for early Polynesian voyages of discovery. All are proven over a stylised map on which the lurid inexperienced glow of radioactivity is seen following the birds’ flight.

Throughout the collection, we’re proven, although the medium of superbly created and painted costumes, the fragility of the setting and the customarily blase method wherein it’s handled by authorities and trade.

“Soda Ash”, Ed Ritchie

(Blue Oyster Gallery)

People are floor dwellers. Once we go searching us, we pay no thought for the land on which we stand apart from the seen high layer. But the land extends deep under our toes, carrying its tales of the aeons of geologic time and the subterranean human infrastructure which retains our cities operating.

These unheeded tales are the main focus for Soda Ash, a love poem to the basalt and salt water that makes up our surroundings in Dunedin, the fixed erosion and shifting of the land by way of wind, rain and river.

Ed Ritchie’s exhibition explores these actions and solidities by means of a collection of constructions, every of which displays on Otago Harbour’s fiery beginning and its subsequent gradual erosion into softer, extra pleasant panorama. The varied installations additionally contemplate human motion, particularly within the type of the numerous pipes and cables which run beneath our toes.

Works are created from supplies comparable to cobalt chloride take a look at paper, utilized in checking for leaks from water mains, and in a single work, Portray a Drain, a porthole-like drain mouth is paired with a pure image (a feather) and an emblem of air pollution (a burnt tyre). One notable work, Fertiliser, has been constructed from matches after which intentionally burnt, leaving the work as an analogy of the method of creation of the land.

“Summer time Present”

(The Artist’s Room)

With many galleries, the Christmas/Summer time break is a time to showcase the artists for whom the gallery is a main business outlet. Such is the case with the exhibition at the moment on present at The Artist’s Room.

Such exhibitions should not a nasty factor, as they provide galleries an opportunity to ease new artists into their exhibitions as a part of a gaggle additionally containing recognized drawcards.

The Artist’s Room’s summer time present introduces a number of artists who’re much less recognized in Dunedin — albeit a few of them well-known elsewhere. The glowing summary discs of Hollie O’Neill, created in epoxy over mirror or aluminium are amongst these, as is the magic realism of Heather Denison’s animal scenes. Harriet Millar’s hypnotic colored pencil work and a few haunting city scenes from Zoe Marsden additionally make a powerful impression.

City scenes are additionally a trademark of Sam Foley, one in every of a number of of The Artist’s Room’s extra established artists with work on show. There are additionally smooth, shifting landscapes from Inge Doesburg and a strong horse picture from Julie Greig. Extra subdued, however charming, is a small mezzotint by Kyla Cresswell. A particular point out should additionally go to Anne Stewart’s gorgeous {photograph} of a kiwi chick, and to Bridget Morrison’s bull, Bernie, whose surly gaze follows guests as they transfer across the gallery.

By James Dignan