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Richard Adams
Brit Bunkley
Andrea du Chatenier
Joe Hargan
Mark Smith
Warren Viscoe
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| Love Me Tender: Canine influences in art |
| 17 October - 11 November 2007 |
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In times of need our canine companions can be relied upon for solace, enjoyment, excitement and unbounding enthusiasm for anything that allows them to be close to their human family. No welcome home is the same after experiencing a canine hello; the wagging tail, the prancing, the jumping, every possible permutation of expressing joy is drawn upon to convey their delight at our return.
In response to this devotion many artists have been inspired to include dogs in their work in some capacity. From obvious mutual admiration for dogs Andrea du Chatenier has created The Wandervogeler which stands at 1.8 meters tall and graces the gallery with his plaid suit, shirt and necktie. This work is one in a series of freestanding large-scale sculptural dogs by du Chatenier; an earlier creation Casper (D.F.) Seeks Love was a finalist in the 2006 Wallace Art Awards.
The Wandervogel of the title for the current work references a movement from the late 1800’s in Germany where small groups of men and women would sing and wander in nature to try and shake off the restrictions of society and experience the wonder of nature as opposed to the growing industrialisation of the time. Wandervogel roughly translates as migratory bird and here we find The Wandervogeler with his trusty companion duck on his shoulder, and his guitar, enroute to having an oneness with nature experience.
In stark contrast to The Wandervogeler Brit Bunkley’s work, Flower Boxer, is purely artificial with a computer-generated image of what appears to be a boxer dog with the capability to grow a flower under its skin. This work raises questions about human intervention in species natural evolutionary process with dogs being a prime example of many years of manipulation to create pedigree breeds. With questionable motivations in some instances such as the current trend towards miniature designer dogs.
In a less serious tone, Warren Viscoe’s, Nothing But a Hound Dog, made from his signature recycled wood, in this instance kauri, revisits his dog form first created in 1972. This simple shape of a seated dog howling in silhouette has since been reproduced in many forms and in some instances borrowed by other artists.
Mark Smith’s fascination with dogs is abundantly clear in this show with five photographs all portraying the humble dog, some staged, some captured in a more natural stance. It does not stop with his love affair with his own canine companion, Iris, these images include two photographs of Neil Finn’s family dog, Lester the Dalmatian, taken during a year Smith spent travelling with Neil Finn acting as nanny to the Finn children.
The last two works in the exhibition are by two British artists and have a whimsical quality. Richard Adams painting depicts friends collecting wood in the snow of a country residence accompanied by numerous dogs the scene having a sense of a naive romantic idyll. Joe Hargan’s painting has an eccentric Lord-like character in a morning suit standing in a bath with his dog looking on reflecting the attitude of the human and illustrating perfectly the common occurrence of dogs and human companions having strikingly similar physical characteristics.
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