Traffic islands and median strips are the central motif in a new exhibition opening at the Mary Newton Gallery on Tuesday night. Entitled Dig the exhibition features a series of gouaches by Chris Clements.
Traffic islands and median strips are the central motif in a new exhibition opening at the Mary Newton Gallery on Tuesday night. Entitled Dig the exhibition features a series of gouaches by Chris Clements.

"I remember doing my first painting of a traffic island and thinking 'the traffic island is the underdog, it has no cultural significance. Its only purpose is to separate roads, to be in between and nothing else.'

So I thought I'd make them iconic through painting, invert their status somehow" he says.

The resulting works are a lyrical series of gouaches which imagine the traffic island as a portal to somewhere else, architectural playgrounds or just a place to set up camp.

"Chris' work explores notions of space which seem to compress history and geography into one" said Mary Newton Gallery co-director Mary-Jane Duffy. "He takes real places as starting point and through the process of painting, they become fictionalised. This is of course what artists do with landscape but Chris makes us conscious of this."

Dig runs until 22 October 2005.

For further information or images please contact Paula Newton or Mary-Jane Duffy Mary Newton Gallery 150 Vivian Street Wellington 64 4 385 1699 contact@marynewtongallery.com