MY CHOICE: Lola Camden / February 2021
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 February 2021 My Choice has been selected by Lola Camden, a gallery assistant at NZ Glassworks, and is available to view until 28th February 2021.
Lola says “I am an avid painter and am continuing my practise to further explore this medium. I like using my hands to make and create, and am very keen to keep learning. I work as a gallery assistant at New Zealand Glassworks and across the road at a bar named Porridge Watson. I have been awarded the subject art prize three years in a row, a fine art scholarship and came first place in the Mangaweka art competition. I would like to study fine arts in the future but nothing is set in stone.”
My Choice February 2021: Lola Camden, Gallery Assistant at NZ Glassworks
Click on an image to see further details about the work and artist, and view a large version.
“Portraiture is invigorating, a place where the world stops still and you have to really look at a person without noise. A one-on-one snapshot attempting to capture an essence and/or presence. I love to paint. At the moment my paintings are somewhat similar to this man in his beret holding his cigarette. The use of colour and big bold brush strokes is an appealing aspect I would like to learn.”
“This shot resonates with me and reminds me of Wes Andersons movies which I religiously watched as a kid. Classics like Fantastic Mr Fox and Grand Budapest Hotel. My brother and I are fascinated by the way he composes his scenes with elegance and symmetry while keeping to a minimalist but bright colour scheme. This image does this to a ‘T’ but in our small town of Whanganui I passed these houses everyday going to school. Seeing images like this sets new perspectives of the world that we already inhabit and I really appreciate that.”
“Laurence Aberhart was the first Tylee Resident and came round to our house a number of times. This series of his involved taking photographs of spaces rich with culture and signs of life but empty and vacant. This image of the Savage Club is familiar thirty five years later. When the first Friday of the month rolls by and music loving locals gather to dance and hold open mics in this strange hall. I have some friends, The Cardboard Box Club, who use this space for band practise. So I get the luxury of sitting by myself with live music surrounding me.”
“Cold cutting lines, stand-off pose, paired with a juxtaposition of colours. Warm reds, yellows and bright pinks give off a contrasting opinion. I did a series of photographs with very similar set-ups as Michael Smither’s “Untitled”. It involved my little brother as the model at a stage where he appeared quite androgenous . This image bought me back to those times of learning about how versatile photography is.”
“I’m a fan of black and white photography. Focus on tone and shape to represent and express ideas is quite powerful, even more so with simple structures. George Krause must have been one of the earliest artists to inhabit Whanganui Tylee Cottage. Which I have history with in that, growing up, the Tylee Cottage residents were the closest I had to neighbours and would often visit. These two naked lovers sit intertwined. I couldn’t tell at first that they are separate people, but through the simplicities of light there is a relationship formed and a strong bond.”
“Ceramics can often be a passage between the practical and the art world. I enjoy using pottery in my everyday life. Starting the morning with a handmade object is quite a special moment. Ross’s craft showed me an insight about the perfect warehouse cup, cheap with no faults, and the individual with its mass of character. My mum used to take my brother and I to Ross’s house, we would collect bit of his broken tossed out pottery on the beach. I’ve kept a couple of similar glazed parts, handles and bits and bobs of that time.”
Category
Past exhibitions 2021
