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Adam Art Gallery
29 May-25 July 2004 |
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Curatorial
Statement | Artist's
Résumé
A charged response to well-known
broadcaster Paul Holmes' public description of United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan as a 'cheeky darkie', White
Drip is emotional, politicised and achingly beautiful.
Ralph Hotere has always had the power to match politics effortlessly with poetics.
From his 'Black Union Jack' series of 1981 (responding to that
year's Springbok tour), to the 'Black Rainbow' series of 1985
(about French nuclear testing in the Pacific) and 1991's 'Song
of Solomon' series (where Hotere tackled the Gulf War), Hotere
has produced works which are stunning examples of modernism,
yet which remain pointedly focused on very real events. Hotere
has never been afraid to show anger in his work, to take an active
position in the wider realm of public opinion.
Visually, White Drip makes a link back to works such
as Aramoana - Pathway to the Sea, from the 1981-1982
series protesting the proposed aluminium smelter for the tiny
Otago township of Aramoana. The intended allusion to Holmes
in the title is a particularly cutting pun, but also a purely
literal description of the work, a dribble of white paint
falling through shiny black corrugated iron. Discussing the
ongoing use of black in Hotere's work, writer David Eggleton
observes: 'Black for Hotere resonates from very early on as
a symbol of apocalypse, or annihilation, of anger; black steals
thunder, black blazes admonitory, then cools into eloquent
silence.'
Emma Bugden
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