a gallery presents

In “Not afraid”, Simon Attwooll presents a series of bright, energetic pieces on paper. His mixed media works, created from the cultural ephemera of newspaper, magazine, and internet images, are intended, in the artist’s words, to “encourage us to explore our current contemporary psyche through [ … ] the reproduced images it consumes and is consumed by.” While this bold intention may or may not hit its mark, the resulting chaotic melange it creates is certainly both strong and vibrant, and the juxtapositions of images and thoughts within the works does lend them depth. By using what the artist refers to as the “outmoded technology” of painting and screen-printing, he has created pieces which the viewer can explore at will. The mind of the artist is – to use the title of one of the works – finding a mess and making it pretty, or more to the point, making it significant. The addition of black glitter as a reflective material in the works enhances the effect of organised chaos. Its dazzle causes repeated deliberate interruptions to the viewing process and a constant shifting of the light over the works. The result is that the viewer is forced to repeatedly reassess the created images.

Kluster****. Sam Ovens, Nathan Forbes and Ant Scarer. 

Hope, comfort, and censorship; just three ideas that Ovens, Forbes and Scarer willingly stomp upon.

This is commendable, however, since these astute Dunedin artists demonstrate insight and wit rather than prosaic discontent disguised as rebellion.

Ovens uses the pop aesthetic to express socio-political commentaries. The audacious, commercial colours deliberately demoralise his subject-matter, while the gestures, text and humour keep us fixated.

We Are Devoid is a sprightly print which appropriates the “Energy Dome” trademark of subversive band Devo with the parliamentary Beehive, so as to (somehow charmingly) debase our ostensibly “devolving” politicians.

Forbes, a second-year art student, uses clarity of form and immaculate brushwork to describe Lynchian horror scenes.

His narrative compositions cleanly describe an immensely disturbing part of human potential; the threat of brutal, instinctual violence from the minds of superficially prototypical children. Chucky meets The Shining in these challenging, yet disconcertingly appealing pieces.

Screaming inaudibly in the corner, Scarer has disgorged the mind of a graphic artist on multiple pieces of A4 paper. Fearsome and comical, these images of corpses, skulls, vamps and cars engage the eye with quick, descriptive lines which, when accumulated, form masses of animated details.

Rambunctious and original, the artist’s forceful “ramblings” lash the room with cheeky quips.