MY CHOICE: Graham Fletcher / April 2021
March 2021: Graham Fletcher, artist
Each month a member of our community is invited to browse our online collection and select six of their favourite artworks. Each ‘My Choice’ selection, together with personal responses to the works, will be available to view on the Sarjeant Gallery website for one month at a time. The April 2021 My Choice has been selected by Graham Fletcher and is available to view until 30 April 2021.
Artist Graham Fletcher is currently residing in Whanganui as the artist-in-residence at Tylee Cottage from February – June 2021. Fletcher has exhibited nationally and internationally, lives in Dunedin and is Principal Lecturer at the Dunedin School of Art. He has been a practicing artist since 1997 and his work to date as a New Zealand born Samoan has explored complex cultural issues within a post‐colonial context. These ideas formed the basis for further research and in February 2010 he completed his Doctorate of Fine Arts at The University of Auckland.
“Great to revisit this work again, or one very similar which I recall seeing in Auckland many years ago. What moved me then as it still does now is its reductive simplicity in form and pattern and as a tutor it’s hard to ignore the references to classical anatomical casts once used in many art schools as a teaching resource.”
“Interesting to see the humble beginnings of what would be a tour de force in the New Zealand art scene throughout the 80’s, 90’s and beyond. This is a fine early example of what was to come in the strange perspectives, anthropomorphic characters and wry humour featured throughout many of Hammond’s works.”
“Recently I have been looking online through Van Gogh’s personal collection of Japanese prints, of which he owned around 250 Kunisada designs. Those elements in Japanese prints that captured the post-impressionist imagination still resonate with me today in the use of bold colour, flattened perspectives and decorative motifs.”
“Such a moving collection of poems dealing with love and loss on the passing of Paul’s short-lived daughter Imogen Rose. As visual poetry the wonderful interplay with typography and space is exemplified in the centre spread work where repetitive text is used to create a near empty void… ‘one white flower in the darkness only’.”
“The cool lemony-yellow colour saturates the eyes and suspended within the field is a single musical note hanging there unwavering. It’s an elegant work with minimal fuss and evokes for me Man Ray’s Revolving Doors series in the use of bright colour, open space and musical motifs.”
“It’s a quirky and poignant work and the kiwis on the vases brings a smile to my face. Tibbo often used symmetry and mirror-image techniques in her works, and she’s pulled it off nicely here. I’m sure there are hidden levels of meaning in the work in relationship to her father (it was rumoured that Robert Louis Stevenson was Tibbo’s secret father, but this has been roundly rejected), which adds to the intrigue behind the work. it’s worth a visit to the Sarjeant Gallery to see it in person.”
Gallery Note: This painting is not currently on display at Sarjeant on the Quay however it can be seen as part of the exhibition ‘Stars start falling’ on display at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery / Len Lye Centre, New Plymouth 22 May – 15 August 2021; and at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Titirangi 18 September – 5 December 2021
Category
Past exhibitions 2021
