Wayne Barrar Exhibitions

Wayne Barrar

Parts Unknown

18 Mar - 12 Apr 2003

Exhibition Works

Geothermal Glasshouse (Hveragerdi), Iceland 2001 (printed 2001)
Geothermal Glasshouse (Hveragerdi), Iceland 2001 (printed 2001)
Across Spillway on Ohau Canal 2002 (printed 2003)
Across Spillway on Ohau Canal 2002 (printed 2003)
Track Pole, Ruapehu 1986 (printed 2002)
Track Pole, Ruapehu 1986 (printed 2002)
Ohau Riverbed Below Ruataniwha 2002
Ohau Riverbed Below Ruataniwha 2002 (2003)
Track in Field, Kai Iwi 1985 (Vintage Print)
Track in Field, Kai Iwi 1985 (Vintage Print)
Castlepoint Lookout 1986 (printed 2003)
Castlepoint Lookout 1986 (printed 2003)
Geothermal Glasshouse (Varmaland), Iceland 2001 (printed 2001)
Geothermal Glasshouse (Varmaland), Iceland 2001 (printed 2001)
Penstock Entry to Ohau 2002 (printed 2003)
Penstock Entry to Ohau 2002 (printed 2003)
Ngauruhoe and Rock 1986 (printed 2002)
Ngauruhoe and Rock 1986 (printed 2002)
Mason Bay #4, 1988 (vintage print 1988)
Mason Bay #4, 1988 (vintage print 1988)

Exhibition Text

The ecology of Barrar’s concern is that of culture in an age of limits. (1)

In these post-romantic times landscape is a concept that has been rewritten and re-visualised many times. At the very least it is the opposite of culture. But, as Barrar has realised, the two are never entirely separate. (2)

The country in his pictures has been entirely cleared of human beings, but humans are without doubt the reason that the country appears as it does. These are places we have ‘settled’, but in Barrar’s images they are capable of unsettling us. (3)

Most of my work is centred on the impact on land of the consequences of shifting cultural practices. Occasionally I will venture into the laboratory, as a place of change, in order to investigate human intervention at a ‘micro’ level. At other times I may revisit historical imagery or sites as a reference point.

In order to deal with the complexities and ironies inherent in the relationship between people and the environment, my work has evolved into a number of series – some finite, others ongoing. They may vary in approach and process, but in all of them the central consideration is this inter-relationship between culture and nature in an increasingly complex society.

1. Geoff Park, essay in Shifting Nature: Photographs by Wayne Barrar, University of Otago Press, 2001.
2. Megan Jenkinson from “Beauty and Waste,” Landfall 204, November 2002.
3. Geoff Park, op.cit.