Paintings and objects, including rubber works, frayed canvases, disturbing shoes and cooked paint, are some of the new art on display at Pataka Museum and Gallery in Porirua, Wellington.

Instead of working with images, Katherine Ivory, Sue Lund, Gill Newland, Perry Scott and Chris Tane, work with materials - paint yes, but also, rubber, thread, wool. Paintings and objects, including rubber works, frayed canvases, disturbing shoes and cooked paint, are some of the new art on display at Pataka Museum and Gallery in Porirua, Wellington.

Instead of working with images, Katherine Ivory, Sue Lund, Gill Newland, Perry Scott and Chris Tane, work with materials - paint yes, but also, rubber, thread, wool.They aim to let the material find its own voice, to facilitate its transformation into something new, something it hasn't been before and something only it could become because of its inherent qualities.

This kind of art-making runs counter to the notion of figurative representation, to the idea of a window opening onto the world, to the process of moulding the materials into a pre determined form. The works critique and challenge that mode of operating while taking painting, as a medium, in new directions.

Katherine Ivory is exhibiting paintings as well as wrapped works. "I used wool, fur and felt to wrap around stilettos. They're an item that we're all familiar with. In wrapping them, or suffocating them, I wanted to question or confuse our everyday associations with familiar objects," explains Katherine.

For Perry Scott, material is everything. He works with anything from Rotorua mud and landfill to paint and rubber. "I just see the materials and get absorbed by what I can do with them. I wanted to work with rubber and its gravitational pull," Scott explains. "People may see it as hair follicles and skin. That's their choice. I just see materials that intrigue me and deserve to be explored."

Another artist has enjoyed "lowering" or debasing a material which has connotations with high art. "Egg was used as a binding medium (egg tempera) in the finest renaissance paintings," says Gill Newland. "I decided to "lower" egg and our association of it with paint. I mixed it with mass produced, pre-made acrylics. Then I decided to cook the canvas in a microwave. Using strands of paint, I have subsequently sewn the egg-cooked canvases together and stretched them."

The show runs from 12th February to 6th March in the Pataka Blue Pacific Gallery, Parumoana St, Porirua

For more information contact:
Katherine Ivory (04) 383 8882 or kivory@ihug.co.nz