Make Shift

 

 

 

 

"Kristy Gorman's recent work is the result of a series of operations; dilution, ink painting, blotting, pressing, cutting, layering, (sanding) and rearrangement of boards, glass and paper. The heavy-weight papers, already subject to hot-pressing in their manufacture, are further excavated by cutting or embossing, as their volume is pushed up through a print-making press or forced to sink into themselves. Boards rest on wooden shelves with forms that disappear and recur elsewhere as shadows. Whole compositions might be precisely copied from an earlier iteration, only to be dissected.

 

Geometric shapes hover in the centre of the frame or rear up from beyond the edge; off-set in pairs or groups. The forms suggest microscopic slides, cellular diagrams, litmus tests, or conversely the macroscopic scale of an architectural plan. They could be the visual notations of a knitting pattern, harlequin fabric or a distant echo of childhood play with cuisenaire rods… Shadows become duplicitous as the artist plays with the gap between the thing and the paper as ground. There are false shadows and real shadows, edges and simulated edges and optical doubling or tripling… These perceptual tricks catch us seeing ourselves seeing…

The fine, the slight, the trace and the impression become the substance of this series of work. The shapes are little pieces of existence containing reminiscences, or perhaps intimations of things to come."

Text by Janine Randerson from Cryptomnesia - an unpaginated gatefold published jointly by Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch; Melanie Roger Gallery, Auckland; and the artist
Kristy Gorman, in 2013.

 

 

Additional works

 

Kristy & Jonathan installing