Seeing the world in different ways

FACE 1: By Paula Cunniffe

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Arts reviews

Suter showcases outstanding contemporary ceramics Exhibition shows wood used in quirky, innovative ways Glimpse at work of talented potters Spring reveals sharpened skills Street art talk of the town An intriguing trip down the rabbit hole, into the shed Stimulation from the streets Rats rule roost in cracker concert Glimpses of the real and surreal Show brings new dimension to art

Cindy Flook, Photography on Aluminium and Paula Cunniffe, Acrylic and Oil Stick on Canvas. Refinery Artspace, until February 13. Reviewed by Gail Tresidder.

Filled to bursting with people, Paula Cunniffe's big, bold paintings dominate the large rear room at the Refinery.

The artist is brave to be so blatantly non-commercial and – remembering her lavatory installation at the Suter some years ago, which shocked, amused and made us think – to continue to pursue her vision so single-mindedly.

Having spent many years in a huge city, in close proximity with millions of other people, my first reaction to Cunniffe's work was discomfort, remembering only too well the feeling of being one of a crowd, all individuality seemingly obliterated.

There are six paintings, and whether it be as part of the brown and black mass hysterically cheering a Hitler parade or, conversely, the bright colours of the purposeful, determined runners in the Boston Marathon, these little people in a large horde appear pressured and stressed.

In a poem accompanying the exhibition, the artist writes that she "sees it all from her chair".

It is quite a knack to capture events, most of them historical, and give them fresh impact. Her depiction of the starving, muffled people of Leningrad, dehumanised by cold, fear and hunger, yet still somehow expectant and wanting against the odds, is touching and not easily dismissed.

Almost brutal in execution, and allowing no truck with sentimentality, technically Cunniffe's new work has echoes of the grandiose art from the heyday of the Soviet influence in Europe.

Would I want one in my home? No. Do I respect and admire it? Yes.

"The landscape functions as a mirror and a lens; in it we see the space we occupy and ourselves as we occupy it," wrote Bronowski in The Ascent of Man, and this quotation, hanging in the gallery, voices the meaning behind Cindy Flook's beautiful photography.

We have the world of the train – that feeling of moving through the landscape, watching the real world through the windows, rugged and wild outside, safe and comfortable inside with the requisite icecream in tubs, the maps and the guidebooks.

Fellow passengers are reflected in the windows, and through them are tussock colours, blue mountains and snow, the feeling captured perfectly in her three Alpine Express archival prints on perspex.

Water drops and water running, once again reflections, this time on car windows – quite delightful near-abstract images in Carwash I and II archival prints on aluminium, the gleam of the metal giving lightness and luminosity.

Of the four Portside series, all delicious, again on aluminium, I particularly appreciated the assemblage of huge floats, their shimmering blues and browns.

They reminded me of India, of gourds and of piles of rusting metal one sees there on the streets.

Flook's work is very fine. It transcends my usual expectation when looking at photographs and becomes something much more, becomes pure art.

Although disparate in style, the work of these two artists hangs well together.

The exhibition is on for a further 10 days. Recommended.

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