|
 |
|
Planetspore
|
Notorious New Zealand Waikato Art Award (2003)-winning artist Rohan
Wealleans works on the tactile knife-edge of painting, redefining the
medium. Rohan developed the concept of a 2.5 metre high paint ball for
the Work it. component (curated by Tobias Berger and Tessa Giblin of
Artspace, Auckland) for SCAPE Biennial 04.
Rohan pushes the painterly expressionist tradition of Jackson Pollock
and Willem de Kooning to its limits and in doing so reflects on primal
and instinctive in art, making sculptural paintings with knives and
mannequin busts. His marble-like monumental and simultaneously delicate
millifiori-like works stimulate a discussion between objects and painting,
and challenges the stereotypical heroic sculptor to a brawl on a painter’s
turf.
He writes:
“Over the past five years I have been working with Resene paints,
using hundreds of litres, pushing it to its limit to see what I can
do with it. It is amazing stuff and very versatile. I have used it in
many different ways. I have layered up panels with up to one hundred
layers of paint and carved back into it to make paintings. I have painted
it on windows and peeled it off to form sheets which can be rolled and
carved into solid paint replicas of real objects like cans, fruit, or
a whole fish. I have used it to make beautiful stones which I have turned
into jewellery. I have used Resene paint to make an entire wearable
outfit for a tribal woman. I have even created an entire Pacific island
culture through Resene paints. Resene paints are the best paints I have
ever used, you can do just about anything with them.
“For this project, my biggest project to date, I have made a giant
paint sculpture. The process is simple; carve the shape of the sculpture
out of polystyrene, cover with fibreglass and then put as many layers
of Resene paint possible on the structure in the time allowed, then
carve into the paint revealing the many layers beneath the surface.”
Of this work, curators Berger and Gibblin write:
“Whether this work is read as a ‘birth’, squeezed out
of the land it sits on, or a sculptural ‘stone’, gathering
moss, he activates a discussion between objects and painting, and challenges
the physical brawn of sculptural crusaders to a round in the ring of
a painter.”
Article from eScape newsletter – biennial 04.
|