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City Gallery
30 May - 22 Aug 2004 |
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Curatorial
Statement | Artist's
Résumé
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Pink and
White Terraces were two of New Zealand's major scenic draw-cards,
spectacular pieces of natural phenomena. Tourists travelled
great distances to take in the curving basins of delicately
tinted silica and to bathe in the warm water in the lower
pools. Author Anthony Trollope, who bathed in the Pink Terraces
in 1874, gave this sensuous description of his experience:
'In the bath, when you strike your chest against it, it is
soft to touch, you press yourself against it and it is smooth'.
Since the disastrous eruption of Mt Tarawera in 1886, the
Terraces can only be visited in representation: in historical
paintings and photographs and, now, in Maryrose Crook's dream-like
painting, Crepuscular: Display Only.
Crook's terraces are cocooned in soft folds and smooth surfaces
and one might almost be tempted to press oneself up - ever
so gently - against this seductive painting. But as the title
sternly reminds us, this twilight world is strictly for visual
possession only; no Trollope moments for us. Likewise, Sleeping
Sickness seems to present a fantastical storeroom of Crook's
symbols and imagery, but no-one's providing us with the key,
no-one will tell us what all the treasures in this treasure-trove
mean. Immensely enticing, yet coyly resistant to interpretation,
Crook's paintings are personal worlds put on public display.
Courtney Johnston
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