Article

By Simon Denny

As in other years the show was largely organised physically into Painting, Intermedia, Sculpture, Te Toi Hou, Printmaking, Photography and Design, reflecting the structure of the school, and then a spillover space in Mount Street. A departmental design of the show is a fairly pedestrian but supposedly necessary way of organising, since the show is first a competitive academic showcase for the purpose of marking within this structure. However when a viewer independent of the marking process comes to it the arrangement can seem rather random. The school becomes a labyrinth of artwork, the viewing process emulating a treasure hunt, a constant hope of stumbling over that satisfying exhibit that makes the process rewarding.

So some work then, which stuck with me after this involved process. Fraser Munro's video work, wall drawings and web page seemed a freaky profile of a mans mundane/extraordinary perverted life. Perhaps the most engaging bit was the video, which had a sort of ‘David Lynch does home video' feel to it. The viewer is ushered through these quite intense exerts from the protagonist Max Canyon's life, involving a sequence of almost random scenes of Max abusing a dog, giving cunnilingus, doing a very off version of a haka in only a balaclava. You feel like a friend who knows the man only as he would himself, trespassing others and feeling naughty, but being there. It feels a very immediate thing.

Emma Smith showed work which was a nice exploratory thing. A whole collection of different shoddy mini wooden staircases, waxy hot-dogs, plasticy fried egg balls, arranged into a glut of low level terraces, among shapes that were reminiscent of blow-up baseball bats. Some plastic Sunday's rubbish turned coral reef. Some faux food littered in a terraced wasteland. Some display of proud crafty formations slipping into fatty foods.

Nick Austin's ‘kidult' work was installed in a cork tiled room way at the end of a hall of the ancillary Mount Street space. A bunch of discrete objects were mounted on the wall or placed on the floor. A soft knit jumper with broken eggshells on the elbows, a piece of plywood, cut into a wobbly shape resembling a flapping banner, painted with smokers toothpaste and mounted onto yellow sponges. A piece of corrugated cardboard cut into a fish shape painted a textured black mounted to the wall with some small hinges. This collection of objects was strange and thoughtful, seeming considered and purposeful, while seeming to be made by somebody at home with their kid and the contents of their pantry. I'll sit there, you cut it up and colour it, then we'll both think about what we've done. Grab that cereal, those shards of glass, that concrete block and then we'll run it through.

So many other exhibits were really interesting too. Gwen Norcliffe's spastic fluro plastic cup alien world, Kylie Duncan's video of fiddling around with cameras and shoes and then a bit more and some more camera changes and then a bit of sliding over into that corner and rearranging this piece of audio equipment. Tahi Moore's odd wooden world, with his computer discursive machine and his videos of himself and doppelganger was also particularly engaging.

To this viewer much of the three dimensional work, and video pieces seemed to be where the more interesting art was found. However others may have found different work appealing, and it could have something to do with where one started in the labyrinth. I was certainly more generous with viewing at the beginning of the maze. And I may have just plain missed something.