Art seen: January 16

James Dignan examines the art about town.

<i>Kinetic wind sculpture</i>, by Derek Ball

There are several intriguing exhibitions on display at Dunedin Public Art Gallery, all exploring the interaction between exhibition space and exhibit.

Derek Ball's large-scale sculptures are well known, most notably his wind sculpture on the Dunedin Public Library plaza. This work, along with another in the atrium of Dunedin Public Hospital, are represented in this exhibition through new videos by Max Bellamy which examine the relationship between the works and the surrounding public area.

Alongside these videos sit several smaller works, among them two kinetic pieces. In these, coloured oil moves through rotating perspex planes to create hypnotic patterns which evoke semi-abstract landscapes, while at the same time referencing the patterns created by lava lamps. Nearby stands an ominous clear container filled with near-spherical spore-like forms. There is a distinct sense that these items, already close to bursting, may soon invade the gallery.

Perhaps most intriguing is the multilayered and aptly (and punningly) named ''Postmodern'', a small but impressive bronze sculpture of a wooden post encased within a large MDF and mirror case. The form of the display case is reflected by that of the bronze, which echoes into infinity within its mirrored array. Is the bronze the exhibit, or the display case? Where does the exhibit end and the exhibition space begin?

<i>Nan</i> (left), by Ernest Ipsen, <i>Portrait of an unknown woman,</i> by Cornelius Johnson, and <i>Two women,</i> by Jeffrey Harris

A slice through the collection of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery allows another exploration of the gallery experience. In ''Wonderwall'', some 60 paintings are hung in the formerly popular salon style, now usually eschewed by galleries. Rather than allowing each work its own individual breathing space, the paintings are presented cheek by jowl, jostling for attention, but also creating connections and conversations with those works close by.

The works are predominantly portraits, but of wide-ranging styles and eras, some low key or muted, others bright and colourful. The surprising juxtapositions allow viewers to appreciate the works in a new light, to compare and contrast eras and sitters. The display also allows viewers to let themselves be deliberately overwhelmed by the art.

In a bold move, the DPAG has presented only one full wall of art in a large and otherwise near-empty gallery, occupied solely by a renaissance sculpture. This provides a strong feeling of interplay between art and viewer, as well as between the busy wall and the contemplative quiet of the room. The gallery area gains the feeling of being a stage, with the sculpted wrestlers and living visitors as the protagonists in a play watched by the unmoving gaze of the paintings.

<i>PokPo,</i> by Seung Yul Oh

''Moamoa: A decade'', is an impressive series of works by Korean-New Zealand modernist Seung Yul Oh. In these large-scale works, Oh explores scale, repetition, and - again - the boundaries between the exhibit and exhibition space, notably in the giant bubble forms which threaten to fill the gallery.

Playfulness is a keyword in much of the work. Whether it be ''PokPo'', the oversized fibreglass mouse, or a series of economy-sized children's Weeble toys, a spirit of fun infuses the works. At the same time, the pieces become a contemplative look at the nature of the miniature items of which these are models.

Food also plays an important role in Oh's art, and perhaps the most intriguing pieces in the exhibition are a series of slightly unnerving, ghostly noodle waterfalls - precise sculpted bowls of noodles, long strands of which are being lifted by chopsticks held in unseen hands.

In any exhibition which combines viewer/art interaction with fun, it is no surprise that there is direct audience participation in several of the works. Two of these feature in this exhibition as allowed temptations to the gallery visitor - a walk through a yellow pneumatic forest and a romp across a giant beanbag landscape.