Seeing in a different light

The best art doesn't have an image. Or at least it does not have one that you can immediately recognise, says sculptor Richard Serra.

A vase of flowers is a vase of flowers. You see it and then forget it.

The best art is that which keeps you coming back for more, Serra says.

He maintains that art is more compelling when it makes you want to go back for the fulfilment of an experience which might not be the same as what you have seen in front of you.

In other words, artists, don't insult your audience's intelligence. Don't make it easy.

So Gallery at Woollaston director Rebecca Hamid hasn't. She likes Serra's thoughts.

"If the viewer's inquiry is greater – if there is more to it that just what is placed in front of you, the art becomes more potent."

Beyond the Image is about that potency in its different levels. Some artists in the exhibition have no noticeable images at all.

Christchurch artist Darryn George bridges that gap somewhat. He says he always takes something recognisable but then peels it back to its most basic form. In this case a computer screen.

"With abstractions people bring different associations or experiences with them when they view the work so I give visual clues to where I am heading but often people bring back completely different ideas."

George takes pleasure in people reading his work in completely different lights to what he might have intended.

"I think it is fantastic, I then might use those ideas to figure out where I can go in the future."

It is a point, George says, where people come together and bounce concepts around and it can help both the viewer and the artist.

Where George's work might avoid conventional images, Mahana artist Tracy Duncan does not shy away from provocation, though she laughs at that word.

In most people's minds the image of a child holding a pistol to your face might be a tad shocking, but to Duncan it is simply about challenging perceptions. The child's expression is such that it is difficult to tell whether it is a boy or a girl, grimacing or about to cry. More importantly does this armed toddler mean me harm?

"I like playing with that idea," Duncan says. "When we are confronted with it we are not too sure what to think."

The exhibition is about how people approach abstract paintings, Hamid says. "Many people find abstraction difficult. They think that abstract paintings must have a specific meaning of some sort, if only this could be clearly understood and articulated."

In Beyond the Image you might not get any favours but the experience might keep you coming back for more. And for that, the experience will be that much richer.

Beyond the Image at the Gallery at Woollaston featuring Laurence Aberhart, Darryn George, Noel Ivanhoff, Chris Chateris, Kelcy Taratoa, Ben Webb, Paul Dibble and Tracy Duncan until January 20.

- © Fairfax NZ News