The blue which
pervades Gerda Leenards’ recent work is as much about light as it is a single
colour. Light, it could be argued, is the central enquiry of her practice. Following
the Blue Ribbon heightens
illumination to saturation point, bringing us to a place which feels wet with
light. Here the physical combination of light and water must be acknowledged as
forming life’s fundamental equation. It is both the painter’s base currency,
and the elementary unit of existence.
This exhibition
draws on Gerda Leenards’ 2008 research trip to China’s Guanqxi Province.
Travelling along the Li and Yulong (a smaller tributary of the Li) River’s, she
traced the contours of the craggy karst ranges which line their banks. On her
return to New Zealand the artist painted a series of works on canvas and
antique screens. In these images the landscape is reflected in the river’s
limpid surface, building an atmosphere deeply still.
Depictions of the
mountainous landscape along the 100km reach of the Li River (often referred to
in poetry as ‘the blue ribbon’) appear throughout Chinese literature and visual
art. Figurative descriptions have been attributed to many of the forms, and
Gerda recalls the extended conversations which took place around the ‘painted
nine horses’ and other shapes identified in the contours. Her works re-present
these in an abstracted painted vocabulary, an approach which will be familiar
to viewers who know her landscape images of Fiordland.
Qualities of
light, atmosphere and water remain central in Gerda’s paintings. These have
spanned a range of territories. The China trip has furthered her explorations
through the encounter with another very strong and ancient landscape tradition.
The much-discussed traits of Dutch light, New Zealand light and the light of
China all underpin Gerda’s most recent body of works. Always this light is
reflected in and diffused by water, and in Following the Blue Ribbon the water is both the subject, and
activates the panoramic installation.
Text by Abby Cunnane
Hirschfeld Gallery Curator
City Gallery Wellington
Following the Blue Ribbon was first exhibited in the Hirschfeld Gallery at City Gallery Wellington.
