Playful and irreverent, g.bridle's multi-disciplinary work teases out the links between the process of art making, the location and the tools of the trade. An exhibition of his work, Segregated Enlightenment: A Critique of the Retreat opens at City Gallery Wellington's Michael Hirschfeld Gallery this Saturday and runs until the end of September.

Image: M.L.L., g.bridlePlayful and irreverent, g.bridle's multi-disciplinary work teases out the links between the process of art making, the location and the tools of the trade. An exhibition of his work, Segregated Enlightenment: A Critique of the Retreat opens at City Gallery Wellington's Michael Hirschfeld Gallery this Saturday and runs until the end of September.

Image: M.L.L., g.bridleg.bridle's work questions our perceptions of how and where art is made, in particular his idea of 'the retreat' versus the traditional studio environment.

"The objects and the art I'm making make no excuses for not letting someone engage; I think they're very sure of what they're doing and they're not necessarily trying to explain themselves too much," says the artist.

His idea of 'the retreat' - a physical as well as metaphorical place - taps into masculine cultural stereotypes of the male genius artist secluded within his studio. Explained as a peaceful place or state of mind where inspiration can come more naturally, 'the retreat' also follows in the stereotypical idea of the 'man alone'.

Images of nature abound in this exhibition. His photographs of a pool of water and a rocky reef represent both a haven from the world and the hidden dangers present within the wilderness. bridle's owl candle work, M.L.L., is made in a dated, folksy style. Candle-making is perhaps an activity which would take place on a retreat.

In earlier works, such as Brotherly love (2005) where bridle constructed a bird house in the form of a Masonic lodge, he looked into the closeted world of freemasonry, a subject which encompasses many of his interests. Freemasons, known as an exclusively male organisation with secretive practices, are perhaps similar to the idea of 'the retreat' as somewhere to withdraw to.

When: 1-30 September 2007
Where: Michael Hirschfeld Gallery, City Gallery Wellington, Civic Square, Wellington

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