Andrew McLeod
Sending smoke signals
Entering the world of Andrew McLeod's painting is akin to Alice stepping into the rabbit hole, you never know where it might take you. His paintings and digital works are full of portentous and domestic objects comfortably inhabiting the same terrain; a curious amalgam of symbols and images from sources as diverse as nursery rhymes, science textbooks, architectural sketches, New Zealand's visual history, and his surroundings.
Grafton (2005) offers a somewhat spooky vision: flames flicker from pumpkins, logs, a coffin shape, fruit and plant forms and various pieces of domestic furniture. The work's title relates to the suburb by that name in downtown Auckland, a transitory place where expensive real estate wrestles cheek by jowl with industry, where people tend to move through and don't linger. The reference to a specific location is, however, oblique and those familiar with the suburb will not recall it from viewing McLeod's painting. Mysteriously spiralling and swirling in the background of this painting are what appear to be kowhaiwhai patterns. The pattern is, in fact, an expansion of a Theo Schoon painting-itself a reinterpretation of Māori kowhaiwhai painting (a style of painting developed by Māori to encipher family history and stories within semi-abstract forms).
In the digital drawing Moon (2006), we are presented with a topsy-turvey world with proportions all askew: a tire swing, a life raft and the moon are presented in equal proportions while a tree grows from the ceiling and a couch in a boat drifts aimlessly across the carpet.
While these two works might suggest an unsettling world, writer Margreta Chance has described McLeod's vision as 'regenerative, not apocalyptic'. She notes: '[e]ven though the pastoral idyll has been overlaid with highways and high-rises, concrete and steel, McLeod has found space where he can garden-a metaphorical garden of the spirit and imagination'.[1] McLeod's regenerative vision is certainly apparent in Green Rainbow (2006), with its apple green backdrop, central rainbow, verdant plants and endearing animals that look as though they've stepped straight out of a children's story book. Yet, while this work draws upon seemingly familiar and accessible visual languages and tropes, their combination remains both perplexing and mesmerising.
Sarah Farrar
Notes:
[1] Margreta Chance, Margreta Chance, ‘Logging In: The Walled Gardens of Andrew McLeod’, Largess, Auckland: Andrew McLeod, Artspace and The Physics Room, 2005, p.214.
Andrew McLeod artist bio:
Born Rotorua, 1976
Lives and works in Auckland
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland University, Auckland
Selected solo exhibitions include: 'Good Works', Ivan Anthony Gallery, Auckland (2006); 'New Works', Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington (2006); 'New Works', Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch (2006).
Selected group exhibitions include: '27th Bienal de Sao Paulo', Brazil (2006); '54321 Artists' Projects', Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland (2006); 'Otherworld', Gertrude Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne (2005); 'Public/Private: the 2nd Auckland Triennial', Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland.
Image credits:
Andrew McLeod
Green Rainbow 2006
oil on canvas
Courtesy of Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington
Grafton 2005
oil on canvas
Courtesy of The Salter Collection, Peter and Sally Jackson, Auckland
Moon 2006
pigment inkjet print
Courtesy of Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington