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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen-Webb's
• Sale Name:
  Important Paintings & Contemporary Art
• Sale Date:
  29 Nov 2016 ~ 6.30pm (NZ time)
• Lot #:
  43
• Lot Description:
  Ralph Hotere
  Carey 's Bay and BNZ Port Chalmers
  burnished and cut stainless steel, hand cast lead nails and acrylic in villa sash window frame, 2004
  1000mm x 710mm
  signed Hotere , dated 04.04.04 , inscribed Carey 's Bay and BNZ Port Chalmers lower right
• Provenance:
  Purchased by the present owner from Milford Galleries, Dunedin.
• Notes:
  Carey's Bay and BNZ Port Chalmers is an arresting work in which the confrontational and brutally political nature of Hotere's artistic raison d'etre is delivered through its medium. As the brilliant metallic chromaticity of stainless steel packs a powerful punch, meaningful engagement with the work occurs through a realisation that what is important herein is what has been done unto the work. Certainly this idea of ;doing unto the work is, as an act, one which is deeply attuned to Hotere's concerns of colonial ownership and imperialism - it recalls the idea of dominion being imposed on the land as it is carved up and claimed, as well as environmental concerns around how we treat the land. The physically inter-dimensional nature of this work is simultaneously its most accessible point of engagement and its most opaque, complex feature. Hotere has mastered the synthesis of a number of media - a sash window whose black veneer enshrines an anonymous history of its own, acrylic paint, burnished stainless steel as it has been manipulated and reformed, and the all-important cohesion realised by six hand-cast lead nails. This affords the work a sense of sculptural dynamicity which not only physically brings it into our space, but also transforms the viewer's role into one of active participation and a relationship with the 'window'. Lost in the almost cubist reductivism of geometric forms within forms, abstraction and symbolism are in contention with each other, and any sense of clarity seems fleeting. Thus, the viewer is implicated in the fraught emotion of Hotere's own relationship with this location. Moreover, the black window, though it is a readily-identifiable device whose significance within the broader context of Hotere's oeuvre is a well-trodden fact, is also of especial note in this context. Interwoven with Hotere's articulation of local protest is a broader web of symbols where international focus and considerations are magnified and cast onto the New Zealand landscape. Take, for example, the overt use of the Star of David, that Zionist symbol of protest and potency which, punctuated by a hexagonal figure, puts forth a statement of fragmentation and brings to mind the act of land razing. All in all, this metallurgically-brilliant work does not contain a singularly emblazoned and overt message, but rather comprises a fragmentation of symbolic meaning. It is rife with personal and political allusions, and ultimately places the burden of interpretation upon the viewer. Hotere's own protest is thus transformed into a visual epitaph. Rachel Kleinsman
• Estimate:
  NZ$35,000 - 55,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.