Peter James Smith Exhibitions

Te Waipounamu

10 Jun - 2 Aug 2017

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Artists

Exhibition Works

Go for Gold
Joanna Braithwaite Go for Gold (2013/14)
Shaded Track
Dick Frizzell Shaded Track (2012)
Woven Rimmed Bowl #25
Layla Walter Woven Rimmed Bowl #25 (2015)
From the Banks of Waipahatu Toward Pouriwai Falls, The Catlins 2013
Wayne Barrar From the Banks of Waipahatu Toward Pouriwai Falls, The Catlins 2013 (printed 2015)
Darkness Sets in with Solemn Silence
Peter James Smith Darkness Sets in with Solemn Silence (2017)
Tai Aroha (Red)
Israel Tangaroa Birch Tai Aroha (Red) (2017)
Deep Point
Neil Frazer Deep Point (2006)
Bomb
John Edgar Bomb (2015)
A Drop of Water [20870]
Shane Woolridge A Drop of Water [20870] (2016)
Ridgeline Shift
Simon Edwards Ridgeline Shift (2015)
Awaken
Chris Charteris Awaken (2017)
Pulse Disc 6
Neil Dawson Pulse Disc 6 (2011)
Holothuria from Cormacks, Oamaru - From a Slide by Klaus D Kemp, 2013
Wayne Barrar Holothuria from Cormacks, Oamaru - From a Slide by Klaus D Kemp, 2013 (2013)
Shining Spleenwort: On the Faultline
Ann Robinson Shining Spleenwort: On the Faultline (2015)
West Coast II
Neal Palmer West Coast II (2015)
Cirrus 3
Galia Amsel Cirrus 3 (2015)
Pulse Disc 3
Neil Dawson Pulse Disc 3 (2011)
Between Two Worlds
Simon Edwards Between Two Worlds (2015)
Lens: Granite / Serpentine Cross [JE68]
John Edgar Lens: Granite / Serpentine Cross [JE68] (2013)
Ringside
Jenna Packer Ringside (2016)
Kaka
Nigel Brown Kaka (2016)
The Elvis Rabbit (A Rabbit Named Elvis)
Paul Dibble The Elvis Rabbit (A Rabbit Named Elvis) (2015)
Kotuku Waits
Chris Heaphy Kotuku Waits (2016)
Emily's Hydrangea #2
Layla Walter Emily's Hydrangea #2 (2016)
Lilburn's Retreat
Garry Currin Lilburn's Retreat (2007/08)
Plain Song: The Light Plain - Light Above Eschscholzias
J S Parker Plain Song: The Light Plain - Light Above Eschscholzias (2016)
Geometric Vase (Pale Uranium)
Ann Robinson Geometric Vase (Pale Uranium) (2016)
Alpine Slip
Simon Edwards Alpine Slip (2015)
Triceratium, from Oamaru - Arranged Slide by Samuel Meakin, March 1950
Wayne Barrar Triceratium, from Oamaru - Arranged Slide by Samuel Meakin, March 1950 (2014)
Network No. 6 (Vase Form)
Stephen Bradbourne Network No. 6 (Vase Form) (2015)
Kokako
Nigel Brown Kokako (2015)
Glide (Green)
Christine Cathie Glide (Green) (2014)
Strongman
Jenna Packer Strongman (2016)
From Beginning to End
Chris Heaphy From Beginning to End (2016)
From the Banks of Waipahatu Toward Punehu Falls, The Catlins 2013
Wayne Barrar From the Banks of Waipahatu Toward Punehu Falls, The Catlins 2013 (printed 2015)
Wind Across Dusky Bay
Peter James Smith Wind Across Dusky Bay (2007)
Green Cellular No. 2 (Flattened Vase Form)
Stephen Bradbourne Green Cellular No. 2 (Flattened Vase Form) (2015)
Mason Bay #04, Stewart Island 1988
Wayne Barrar Mason Bay #04, Stewart Island 1988 (printed 2002)

Exhibition Text

Te Waipounamu is the Māori name for the South Island. It also means greenstone. This exhibition explores the South Island, water, the nuances and numerous colours of greenstone.

Wayne Barrar’s remarkable photographs of Oamaru-found diatom fossils and single-celled algae take us into the world we cannot ordinarily see. He reveals a hidden world of abstracted patterns, where events are suggested and life presented as frozen in time. In his black and white landscape works, Barrar delivers moments of splendour and sublime beauty.

Ann Robinson’s Geometric Vase (Pale Uranium) is a masterwork. Space seems suspended, to hover. Colour alters completely, abruptly and – at times – seems to dissolve. Tone mutates back and forth. Shining Spleenwort – on the Faultline resolutely develops a fluid, rising, formal, visual narrative about the environment and threats faced.

Joanna Braithwaite’s Go for Gold poses numerous questions: is the endangered Otago skink more valuable to collectors than a nugget of gold? Is that rarity its ultimate burden? Jenna Packer sites the vanity of our times in the Otago landscape in two major works, Ringside and Strongman, presenting time travelling narratives with dramatic discourse concerning the morality and behaviours of the financial world.

Simon Edwards and Neil Frazer, in quite different ways, take us into the alpine landscape: Edwards to its moods and atmospheric fluctuations; Frazer to its physicality and menace. Galia Amsel evokes a season in Cirrus 3. Garry Currin’s Lilburn’s Retreat is a poetic layering of hidden reveals which acknowledges that great New Zealand composer’s South Island hideaway.

Israel Birch’s majestic, reverential Tai Aroha (Red) uses pattern and texture, building, hiding and revealing astonishing spatial depth, optical rhythms, spiritual and narrative complexity: it ebbs and flows, like water itself.

Of Ngāi Tahu descent, Chris Heaphy uses a distinctive silhouetting technique and symbolic language where scale is altered and time is collapsed. In From Beginning to End Heaphy presents cultural signifiers which become plural and general but remain particular and specific too.

John Edgar’s aptly-named Bomb uses the air-pocketed Mt Horrible basalt, spat out into South Canterbury when the volcano erupted and destroyed itself. Shane Woolridge’s A Drop of Water utilising slate from homes damaged in the Christchurch earthquakes is a triumph of form and motion captured. Neil Dawson remembers the earthquakes in the radiating patterns of the Pulse Disks.

Te Waipounamu also features major works by Dick Frizzell (Shaded Track); Layla Walter (Emily’s Hydrangea 2); Peter James Smith’s evocative Wind Across Dusky Bay; a suite of Stephen Bradbourne’s murine cane cylinders and vases along with Neal Palmer’s restrained, decisive West Coast II.