In Real Life is a celebration of the beauty and wonder that only comes with standing in front of the real thing. This group exhibition of larger works invites you to immerse yourself in this world of intricate detail.
Featuring artists Jacqueline Aust, Weilun Ha, Anna Dalzell and Simon Kaan
Weilun Ha presents two large works on canvas drawing on the metaphor of a fractured porcelain heart motif abounding with flowers. Ha’s deft use of gold lovingly reassembles the heart to celebrate the symbolism of both our imperfections and fragility.
Anna Dalzell’s expressive oil painting The Resting Place is an evocative homage to the harrowing story of a young woman of Irish descent who perished on Campbell Island on one of the Subantarctic Islands below New Zealand in 1810.
Simon Kaan (Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe, Kāi Tahu) is represented by four works on paper from a larger suite entitled Te Au. Kaan’s work often takes its spiritual energy from water and employs his regular use of a waka motif adrift on a metaphorical sea. The Ngāi Tahu translation of Te Au is mist, referring to a cloud of water droplets suspended in the atmosphere, over the water or near the earth’s surface.
Jacqueline Aust reflects on our collective sense of isolation and containment that we have all shared recently but also celebrates the intimacy and comfort of the familiar. These three large abstract etchings play with delicate and intimate mark-making that draws on her experience of time and place competing with bold dramatic gestures of forces beyond our control.
Exhibition runs Friday 25 August to Saturday 7 October
