Artist’s Statement
Tableau
By definition a constructed composition, arranged and
posed for an acknowledged audience. Like stuffed birds in
a museum display, this artificially motionless arrangement,
could this really be a true representation of the
creatures in life?
We create our own compositions, framed beautifully by
the car window, separated (and protected) by a pane of
glass. Perhaps nature is more manageable contained in a
frame, a window, the edges of a piece of paper. We make
our mark on the landscape, fence it in, make roads framed
with strings of power lines.
The work in “Tableau” has been inspired by two very
different experiences, one being a road trip down the
west coast from Nelson to Greymouth. The other influential
experience was visiting both the National Art Museum and
the Zoology museum in Copenhagen, the former with walls
almost wallpapered in frames, and the latter with examples
of stuffed animals, skeletons and assorted 'bits and
pieces' of creatures from around the world. The culture
and history of museums interest me, the idea of the
collections (and collectors) of Victorian times, braving
the unknown to gather exotic specimens to send home.
What a job! I feel a resonance with these ghosts when I
gather my own specimens, a sketch of a shag, an etching of
a stand of nikau palms found by the side of the road near
Punakaiki. I create my own displays and compositions of
how I read the separate elements I have found. Man-made
elements creep in, buildings, carvings, frames, a little
too much symmetry. A reminder that we are not in the wild,
we are safe inside, looking out through the windows.