6x MDF panels
3600 mm x 2200 mm, paint on found board
Ply wood shelf
365 mm 345 mm, paint on found board, 2020
Ply wood shelf back
780 mm x 590 mm, paint on found board, 2020
Sections
Due to effects from the Anthropocene native plant ecosystems are pressured by an ongoing expansion of human infrastructure. In my work I am exploring how landscapes previously occupied by Māori contrast with post-colonial effects of land ownership. Installed in this manner my work references housing in the form of wooden paneling, this is conveyed through the use of building materials.
My use of worn and used found boards emphasize the second hand, and suggest that the landscape is also broken or damaged. Collaging imagery depicting these sections also create distorted and dismantled languages that represent the breaking down of natural habitats. This technique is also explored by artist Michael Armatige who deals with landscape from an outsider’s perspective, much like myself who has a direct disconnect to the land. I have also considered historical references such as James Cook’s painters and botanical artists who produced early versions of western landscape painting of Aotearoa. I have also looked at more modern painters such as Toss Woollaston and Barbara Tuck.
Through my own basic knowledge of science I have started an exploration into the ways plants use different chlorophyll to create pigmentation, and light to help form the energy to maintain colour. To me this is quite informative and helps me to grasp onto what I am depicting in a way that considers not only the visual appearance of flora, but the ways in which it lives and grows. From an understanding of plant biology, I start to understand the role purples, reds, yellows and greens play contrasted amongst the dark browns of the foliage floor.
Details and close ups
These sketch up drawings helped me understand scale, placement and what these works would possibly look like within a gallery setting, the walls are set at the Whitecliffe studio wall heights which I wrote down ( so it could be wrong) and set at the gallery 1.5 height, this height was the best height to me to help convey the encapsulating ideas which I wanted the larger painting to have. The person is also there to convey the scale which I personally didn’t find that the camera conveyed.
Progress and studio shots help show the work in a real setting surrounded by items which help show scale such as a door.
Llenyd Price 