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City Gallery
30 May - 22 Aug 2004 |
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Curatorial
Statement | Artist's
Résumé
Don Driver is a major figure in New Zealand contemporary art
whose influence can be charted across younger generations.
His works of the early 1960s, which brought together an eclectic
range of everyday materials, were among the pioneering pieces
of sculptural assemblage in this country. Frequently redeploying
materials drawn from popular culture that are past their use-by
date, Driver crafts works which are vibrant, tough and playful.
Humour is rife in Driver's work, yet at the same time there
is often a menacing undertone - from the surreal juxtaposition
of dolls and skulls in early work, through to the slashed
and sliced surfaces of his later wall hangings. In 1999, reviewing
Driver's nearly 50 years of art-making, curator Gregory Burke
applauded Driver's ability to make art seem 'so commonplace
yet exotic, so simple yet spectacular'.
In many ways, Driver is an intensely regional artist. His
sources are both urban (discarded toys, old doormats, the
covers of Playstation games) and rural (grain bags, sacking,
rusty tools, animals skulls) and, as such, seem to reflect
Driver's long-time choice of residence in New Plymouth, a
provincial town caught between its agricultural traditions
and its redevelopment as a growing cultural centre. This tension
is neatly summarised in Ozone, where Driver overlays
the humble tarpaulin with sacks stamped with the 'Ozone' label
- the local coffee company. The work's title also reminds
us of Driver's ongoing concern about the fragile state of
our environment. Closer inspection reveals the tarpaulin is
no ordinary tarp - it is, in fact, a recycled version of the
banners which hung from the front of the Dunedin Public Art
Gallery when Driver's touring retrospective show With Spirit
was exhibited there. Digital images of Driver's 1980 sculpture
Yellow Tentacle Pram are also apparent, partially scrubbed
out by the artist and left to hover as a ghostly presence.
Emma Bugden
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