2 September 2008

Is land (detail) 2008, Simon Shepeard

The aesthetics of degradation are presented in a new exhibition Pimp My Planet by Simon Shepheard, which opens at Mary Newton Gallery on Tuesday 9 September.
Shepheard reworks degraded materials such as wood, steel, old plastics, and flaking paint into ‘environscapes’. He explains “When I started working with these materials there was considerable social stigma around them.

My recent work still exploits the redemptive elements within discarded materials and objects. Now they’re re-realised into bleakishly appealing New Zealand environscapes – high relief paintings, often kinetic or containing some transcendental stunt, like glistening materials such as paua or metal parts. These are absorbed into the landscape, implying some kind of environmental tension from years of human excess.”

Pimp My Planet runs from 10 September – 4 October 2008.

ENDS