Upended Elephants, Deers and Trees
My Prince arrived home on Friday night after visiting the new Michael Parekowhai show The Moment of Cubism at Michael Lett with The Coffee Dealer. He was quite beside himself describing it and trying to think up ways to raise the $ for a large elephant work – not to mention working out where the hell to put it. After a spot of internet stalking, I dashed along as soon as I could to see what all the fuss was about. When you work in the arts and see a lot of art each day, it’s not all that often that something really and truly excites you. This does.
Michael has created just three works – there’s a pair of HUGE elephant book ends, some big deer bookends and a grove of lemon trees. I have mentioned briefly in an earlier post, my collection of 50s ceramic dears. If I could afford it, I would buy these. They are the ultimate inclusion in the collection really. Plus they would add to the collection of Parekowhai works I have.
I am not entirely sure that I know what these works are about. Gallery Girl Sarah and I tossed some ideas around but there didn’t seem to be any one definitive answer. Michael likes to keep his audience guessing and I know from experience if you ask him he will avoid answering by saying things like – “Well – do you like it? They’re shit hot aren’t they?” The answer almost always being “Yes” and “Yes”. Michael’s sister Cushla often writes something about his work – an artist statement of sorts but not by the artist. Hmmm… I found this on a very random site when I Googled the show title…
A woman being bundled into a taxi by two men; a lion and a lioness in their cage at the zoo; the imprint of a hand near Le Corbusier’s modular man; the photograph of Guevara’s corpse in a stable, surrounded by a colonel, a U.S. intelligence agent, a number of Bolivian soliders and journalists; Watteau’s doomed world of aristocratic elegance; Leger’s substantial world; the interaction between empty space and filled space, between structure and movement, between the seer and the thing being seen, in Cubist painting; the equation of art: the artist, the world, the means of figuration; a gallery attendant standing at a tall window, gazing down at the animated figures in the courtyard with a fountain, weeping willows, benches, statues, old people and women with children; the loneliness of Czechoslovakia; a demonstration in the Corso Venezia on 6 May 1898. (Stangos, Regarding Berger, London, Spring 1970)
Michael Parekowhai
The Moment of Cubism
…which doesn’t enlighten me much really!
So… the exhibition title comes from a book of the same name by John Berger – art critic and writer. Cubism, as a movement / style depicts its subjects from various angles simultaneously. The artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. Objects and figures are dissected and reassembled into new abstracted forms. That is of course a very simplified explanation…
Michael has long created work that has conversations with art history – in particular the European traditions of presentation and interpretation. He mixes them up with our colonial history and his Maoridom in ways that are both intelligent and humorous. He has also used kitsch slightly nasty imagery for some time (think fake flowers, taxidermy, garden seals) – but always re-presented as slick and extremely beautiful works of art. Ceramic elephant and deer bookends ala my collection, have obviously been the inspiration for the forms in this show. Perhaps then, this functional object is re-presented here in oversized form to hold in the environment as dictated by the cubist premise.
I will mull some more and maybe add to this… all thoughts welcome… I must mention that I do find this ‘let’s be really mysterious and not even tell the staff’ approach to art a little frustrating. I’m all for encouraging the audience to think and to not hand the answers to them on a platter, but sometimes it’s just a wee bit annoying. I like a little hint that can then be picked up on and explored.
Regardless of whether you understand it though, this is still an enjoyable exhibition to see. The show is on till 23 Januray 2010 with no doubt a Christmas break in there at some point. For further information, but no explanation, click here
For more from our Auckland Art Escort see http://whiskersonkittens.webs.com/
I loved the exhibition and i’m a big fan of his work in general, but sometimes i feel that perhaps he doesn’t have the answers. Not that the work isn’t thought through or devised but that someone elses interpretation could mean just as much as his. Somewhat, but very differently, like Rothko. Parekowhai I think often selects imagery or objects that are easily relatable, such as the bookends or animals in this show, that will mean something different to everyone by way of conjuring up different points of view and nostalgia or turning things on their heads making you look at something very mundane in a new light creating intrigue and humour, which is of ourse one of the main intentions of the Dadaist movement. On which, not surprisingly, our good friend John Berger had some far more insightful things to say than i could ever muster. Thanks Whiskers