prismatic geometry in recent art
Stephen Bram, Melinda Harper, Anne-Marie May, Kerrie Poliness, Regina Waiter. Louise Weaver (Australia); Gavin Hipl<ins, Gregor Kregar. Simon Monis, Richard Reddaway, Jim Speers, Anthony Sumich, Ruth Watson (New Zealand)
The phrase 'prismatic geometry', read personally, conjures up memories of primary school-cardboard, glue, failed dodecahedrons and copper sulphate solution corrosion on someone else's pocketknife. And giving myself headaches from looking through boggle-eye lenses. (The word 'refract' kind of ruined rainbows for this reviewer for a while.) Most of us gave up on the old arts and crafts projects, but there were those that persevered. And thirteen of these determined turned-artist individuals have been gathered together by Allan Smith in the Auckland Art Gallery exhibition The Crystal Chain Gang.
One thing I have always admired Smith for, as a curator, is his unconventional grouping style when he comes to meeting the group show brief. Where others tend to enact fashionable round-up-the-usual-suspects showings, Smith usually digs a little deeper. And this one is no exception. However, I raised the word 'brief because I do not believe that any curator actually likes putting together group shows. There is something wrong with them that I find it hard to put my finger upon. lt is like visiting penguins at Kelly Tarlton 's. They look happy in the aquarium; they have a realistic environment and it is all kind and sincere, but it is just not right.
What was it that Paul Valery (1871-1945) said about museum groupings in his spleeny classic The problem of museums? 'At the first step I take towards things of beauty, a hand relieves me of my stick and a notice forbids me to smoke ... Dreariness, boredom, admiration, the fine weather I left outside, my pricks of conscience, and a dreadful sense of how many great artists there are, all walk along with me. A fearful frankness begins