Words Walking

Words Walking explores the ongoing interest in language amongst New Zealand artists. From McCahon to Billy Apple and John Reynolds, words have loomed large on the landscape of New Zealand art – as Auckland art historian Francis Pound once wrote “Words come everywhere, before art, with art, in art and about art”. In this exhibition four artists create works, using their own and found words, focusing attention on the visual image as a ‘text’ to be read.

Mary-Louise Browne works with elegant wit in a wide variety of media, from canvas to granite to neon, in both the public and gallery arenas. Last year, in addition to gallery shows, she produced a major public art work for St Patrick’s Square in Auckland. Words have been a constant feature of her work and she continues to explore their visual representation both conceptually and materially. She is currently on an artist’s residency in Taiwan.

Elliot Collins is a poetic painter who operates in what he describes as a “world of free associations”, employing words to “visualise the stuff of thoughts” and explore the process of making meaning. He completed his Master of Arts and Design in 2007 and has exhibited steadily since then –in 2009 he had a popular solo show and was included in the exhibition of emerging painters at Christchurch Art Gallery.

Roger Mortimer is a painter who has frequently employed text as an element in his painting and in his personal lexicon of signs – his sources frequently derived from medieval texts and illuminated manuscripts point to the ancient association of word and image.

Aimee-Rose Stephenson employs hand-stitched pithy texts to playfully explore the use of hair in art – her use of synthetic hair references traditional Maori beliefs about the tapu nature of the head and hair. Aimee-Rose has a Master of Maori Visual Arts.

Event listed by Alison Bartley

View their other events or contact promoter