Exhibitions: Benjamin Pearce, Shana Brown

Benjamin Pearce

Strange Lingo

Ben Pearce’s constructions are reflective of drawings made by him in childhood. The physical act of realizing these drawings has revealed the aspirations for building the ultimate invention that many children share.

Pearce has initiated a series of sculptures for the viewer taking him or her on a trip into the childhood realm, where circumstances can be threatening and unfamiliar, and on the other hand be magically humorous. Pearce’s play on this world has become his congruent theme throughout his work, often presenting a darker view of the childhood experience. Characters and creatures are born from old parts, plaster, metal and wood. These creatures seem so desperate in their attempts to perform the absent functions that they have been so intentionally made to do.

Ben Studied at Wanganui School of Fine Arts, majoring in Sculpture. He is currently working out of Cicada studios in Hawke’s Bay.

Shana Brown

Photographs from the Year 2000, including the 9 O’clock Photos

Shana Brown’s Photographs from the Year 2000, including the 9 O’clock Photos is showing at Aaron Laurence Gallery from 6th June to 1st July 2006.

Nine photographs made in the year 2000 are presented on the walls. These provide an introduction to Brown’s way of viewing the world. They also reassure the audience with their familiar format: edited, enlarged, and displayed images.

However, also on show is an entire year’s worth of photos, taken at 9 p.m. each night. Presented as they are preserved, each photo from 2000 is mounted on A4 paper, dated, captioned, and filed into a lever-arch file. The viewer needs to take a seat and look at each image individually, which creates an intimacy between both artist and viewer.

Beginning in 1997, Brown has taken a photo at 9 o’clock each night. Grounded in autobiography and documentary traditions, the 9 O’clock Photos have a vital temporal element, giving the images a greater conceptual significance when viewed as a series.

This exhibition shows a second retrospective portion of Brown’s huge body of work. The first viewing was with The 9 O’clock Photos: 1999 at Enjoy Public Art Gallery in 2004. There, the photos were displayed on the walls in calendar format, enforcing voyeurism on the audience.

Moving from the open format to the intimate format of viewing allows the audience to select their level of voyeurism. The discomfort of the 9 O’clock Photos is also eased by the familiar format of the photographs displayed on the walls. There is a play between the "unconsciousness" of the timed project with the consciousness of the edited images.

Brown is currently studying Photography at Massey University. She continues to take a photograph at 9 p.m. each night.

Aaron Laurence Gallery

www.aaronlaurencegallery.co.nz

326 Lambton Quay, Basement
Wellington
New Zealand

Open 11-6pm Tues-Fri 12-4pm Sat
Or by appointment

ENDS

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