QUESTIONS OF BALANCE


QUESTIONS OF BALANCE
The Arthouse
62 Gloucester
Street
Christchurch
New Zealand.
Tel: 03 3666 029
26 August – 13 September 2009



PLAINS FM (http://plainsfm.org.nz/) - PODCAST

EXHIBITION STATEMENT 

I have long been preoccupied with the relationship between apparent opposites. Since my first solo show in Johannesburg in 1985, one of my central motivations has been to articulate the creative dynamics between order and spontaneity, reason and intuition, the masculine and feminine, the material and the spiritual…


Questions of Balance is a visual/poetic response to our planet’s environmental, spiritual, political and ideological imbalances. It uses the dialectic between the builder’s level (with its enigmatic and ethereal spirit bubbles*) and the plumb bob (all weight and materiality) to evoke a dialogue between our physical and metaphysical worlds and to bring current global questions out into the open.

The metaphorical implications of these tools are fairly obvious; the spirit level and plumb bob are essential instruments in every builder’s toolbox; without them, sound structures are unattainable, dependent as they are on right relationship between the absolute vertical and absolute horizontal. Truth might be relative, complex and multi-faceted, but there can be no arguing with the simple pronouncements of these two fundamentally reliable tools of measurement. For this reason, there is something inherently comforting about them.

I have always had an interest in the sacredness of everyday objects. My intention in this work is to highlight the symbolic potency of the builder’s level and plumb bob and to invite others to consider them in a wider context as metaphorical tools of change and as a means of re-dressing balance in our 21stCentury. Attributing these humble objects with both intimacy and monumentality gives them a new, larger-than-life presence.

Elusive as it is, balance is an ideal most of us aspire towards. It is an active, dynamic state, redolent with potential, story and meaning.

Dunedin, 15 August 2009





*The glass spirit vials incorporated in these sculptural pieces were manufactured by Geier & Bluhm, NY. In 2008, during my second research season in Antarctica, a selection of these – and other - vials were frozen into ice before being transported eighty feet below the Explorers Cove sea ice. The primary motivation behind my sending them on an underwater journey was (i) to test their resilience in that extreme environment, (ii) to add a layer of history to what would otherwise remain plain, industrialized objects and (iii) to imbue them with metaphorical potency that would ultimately add ballast to this, and future series of sculptures.
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To enquire after work in this series, please email me on clarab@earthlight.co.nz or follow the link to The Arthouse.

   
PLUMB BOB & HAIKU ISLANDS

2009
Oil, Liquin, chinagraph pencil & pastel on paper*
1000 x 700MM (image size – v x h)
SOLD
  
POISED FOR THOUGHT

2009
Oil, Liquin, chinagraph pencil & pastel on paper
700 x 1000MM (image size – v x h)
ArtHouse link
  
NO MORE CLOCKS AND CALENDAR

2009
Oil, Liquin & pastel on paper
700 x 1000MM (image size – v x h)
ArtHouse link
  
GROUP DYNAMIC

2009
Oil, Liquin & pastel on paper
1000 x 700MM (image size - v x h) 
SOLD
  
PLUMB BOBS OR BELL PULLS?

2009
Oil, Liquin & pastel on paper
1000 x 700MM (image size – v x h) 
SOLD
   
CROSSING THE DIVIDE (Diptych)

2009
Oil, Liquin & pastel on paper
650 x 645MM (image size – v x h)
ArtHouse link
  
TWO SIDES TO EVERY QUESTION

2009
Oil, Liquin & pastel on paper
700 x 1000MM (image size – v x h)
ArtHouse link
   
CONTAINING THE STORM 

2009
Oil, Liquin & pastel on paper
245 x 490MM (image size – v x h)
ArtHouse link
  
TOWARDS EQUILIBRIUM

2009
Oil, Liquin & pastel on paper
700 x 500MM (image size – v x h)
ArtHouse link
   
PAUSE

2009
Oil, Liquin & charcoal on paper
500 x 700MMM (image size – v x h)
ArtHouse link

ONE ON ONE

2009
Oil, Liquin & pastel on paper
380 x 350MM (image size – v x h) 
SOLD
   
INSTRUMENTAL

2009
Oil, Liquin & pastel on paper
380 x 350MM (image size – v x h)
ArtHouse link
   
Not Rebelling to Agitate Trouble but as a Lover of Something Poses Questions

2009
Oil, Liquin & pastel on paper
380 x 350MM (image size – v x h)
ArtHouse link
  
GOING SOLO

2009
Oil, Liquin & pastel on paper
380 x 350MM (image size – v x h
ArtHouse link

OH STILL VOICE OF CALM 

2009
Oil on canvas
710 x 835 MM (image size – v x h)
ArtHouse link
  
GATHERING MOMENTUM 

2009
Oil, liquin, chinagraph pencil & pastel on paper
1000 x 700MM (unframed size – v x h)
ArtHouse link
   
UNLIKELY PAIR (2-piece suspended sculpture)

2009
Kwila, bison wax & aluminium
Male bob 370 x 210MM (height x widest diameter)
Female bob 370 x 470MM (height x widest diameter)
ArtHouse link
  
LEVEL BEST (suspended sculpture)

2009
Kwila, stainless steel, glass & bison wax
2011 x 910 x 910 (height x breadth x depth)
ArtHouse link

TIPPING THE BALANCE (wall mounted sculpture)

2009
Kwila, stainless steel, glass vials & bison wax
00 x 00MM 
SOLD

LEVEL WITH ME (2-piece sculpture)

2009
Kwila, stainless steel, glass vials & bison wax
Spirit level 1800 x 91 x 91MM (Length x breadth x height)
Plumb bob 419 x 717MM (height x diameter)
ArtHouse link
Sincere thanks to Michael Salmon, Peter Leith, Graham Burgess, Alan Stocker and Robin Nyhof. Without community, where would we be?

Special thanks, too, to Pete at Nevill Framer's, TDC for Leveling conversations & support, Russell K for keeping an eye out for plumb bobs and builders' levels for me (over a period of months, if not years!) and Peter Nicholls & Darryl Daniels for allowing me to have with their precious plumb bobs in the studio with me for several months.

* All paper = 600gsm Acquarelle

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