For VivianMay 24 - June 22, 2019    Vivian Wiley could ‘talk’ to plants; she could will life into them. And they thrived. Standing at Zina Swanson’s Ghost Console, a table in Flemish glass with a page from “The Secret Life of Plants” upon it, we learn this of Vivian. Then it is easy to look up and marvel at a suite of four finely painted Swanson watercolours – leaf tones particularly eye-catching around frames of glasses with perhaps the artist’s eyes peering out.   The same tender admiration for things floral is treated sculpturally around the room. Swanson re-focuses our gaze. Painted terracotta eyewear is placed within rectangular p(l)anes of glass that lean against gallery walls. The look is wonderfully light and delicate. The bisque fired eye frames are life size and fine. The glass is body length too, inviting serious reflection. But as plinth or support for the glasses it is deliberately unobtrusive. Painted leaf forms and cords add critical visual weight. The works are named after their carefully painted leaves – simply Oak (For Vivian) or Mandevilla (For Vivian) for example. Their presence is exquisite and considered and enigmatic. And they just could be seriously chic portraits of Vivian.
In the back gallery the palette is softer, the watercolours beaming a sunny yellow and bearing titles like Sun Suit and Sun Eye, Sad Eye. Is Zina Swanson class monitor for global warming and climate change? Might the sculpture Sons sound a note of optimism? It is lyrical yet prickly – a visual and poetic peon to neglect and potentially, to graft. Pay attention people. JS    Details and selected worksPlease hover over image to see title...
List of works Oak (For Vivian), 2019 Rhododendron (For Vivian), 2019 Ghost Console, 2019 Sons, 2019 Vivian, 2018 Seasonal Pyramid, 2018 Who is she? 2018 Eye Pillow, 2018 Sun Suit, 2018
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© Copyright 2006 by Jonathan Smart Gallery. Address: 52 Buchan Street, Sydenham, Christchurch 8023, New Zealand. Tel: +64 3 3657070 Gallery Hours: Wednesday – Friday 11:00am – 5:00pm, Saturday 11:00am – 3:00pm |
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