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"Interlocution" at its commonest interpretation means simply conversation and is an apt title for these works by HENRY SYMONDS (Interlocutions, Zuva Gallery, Melrose Arch, (011) 684 1214), an expatriate who now lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Viewers can engage the work with increasing sophistication at a number of levels depending on the aesthetic need.
The most notable aspect is Symonds' attitude to process. The works are constantly in a state of dialogue during construction, so many variations exist that are similar yet arrived at differently. Symonds regards technology as a tool alongside traditional media, thus he has integrated digital processes with pure painting. Apart from a large painting on vinyl and composite of 20 units called Big Red, the works consist of small horizontal triptychs with a square as the unit of choice. This format immediately introduces a temporality as one tends to read them but they also have aesthetic unity so the expression is ambiguous.
These very different triptychs festoon one wall in a plethora of visual noise and it is obviously the artist's intention to generate conversational confusion. The subject matter is dealt with in a sensual manner and consists of shapes and objects that flow in serpentine forms. Much use is made of motifs derived from a cheap plastic tablecloth acquired in Bangkok buy Symonds transforms them into beautiful fine art. His colors are also luxuriant and voluptuous, in bold reds and engulfing blues.
Several works make reference to famous paintings from the past by masters like Matisse and Symonds borrows motifs like the filigree windows from him. Matisse is famous for saying that art should be like a good armchair and Symonds has the same non-confrontational attitude in his paintings. They are there to be savored and enjoyed.
As a painter, he shows a finely developed sensitivity and is equally adept at rough abstraction as in Big Blue I or delicate touches of hue and line. Much of Symonds' aesthetic seems informed by the Pattern and Decoration movement of the late seventies but the paintings raise themselves well beyond these craft origins.
He selects common items from his immediate environment and transforms them by putting them through a series of processes until they take on a new significance. Thus he may take a motif and digitize it, then make a watercolor from it, which could be scanned and enlarged before being pasted on to wood and receiving more paint or perhaps an epoxy varnish. The permutations are endless.
Symonds feels that these works have the capacity to be evocative cross-culturally and that they are meaningful at a universal level. To some extent one could imagine a variety of viewers placing similar emotional interpretations on the paintings but their appeal is largely decorative.
This is an excellent exhibition and should interest a wide viewing public. Prices are extremely reasonable at about R5 000 for the triptychs and R30 000 for the larger paintings. The show concludes on September 26.
- Ashley Johnson
tel 480-488-6000 * 1-800-721-ZUVA * scottsdale@zuvagallery.com
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