Art seen: Spontaneous compliments the careful

Erin Driessen takes a look at the latest exhibitions around Dunedin.

Various Artists, "The Dowling Street Project: A Retrospective", The Dowling Street Project

The Dowling Street Project houses an exhibition of works from resident artists past and present, including Sam Foley, Anna Perry, Pete Wheeler and Liz Rowe.

Paintings, prints, installations and sculptures fill the long narrow space, in a catalogue of the gallery's years.

Rowe displays a work in pastel and charcoal, a topical comment on the dairy-farming industry in New Zealand; it asks, "Why do some thrive, others not?" She has also created a surveillance tower.

Its form is based on a childhood game, mixing the feeling of safety with more sinister and discomfitting associations.

Sam Foley's projections are joined by other large wall works.

Guy Howard-Smith has drawn and painted a panelled mural in intricate detail.

Jo Robertson, opposite the beautiful lines of her 3 Faces, Mask Hands, has spontaneously covered a white wall in black paint and scrawled, 'What A Relief.'

Henry Devereaux has installed an "X" of spikes with a glass cube of water, holding a silver ring and piece of watermelon, hovering above.

The wide range of works and subject matter fit perfectly within the space, its hidden studios just beyond.

The experimental and spontaneous complements the highly detailed and careful.

Past and present works mix, their merged display paying tribute to the changing space that not only displays them, but assists in their creation.

Linda Halverson, "A Series of Prints", Rocda Gallery

Perfection, obsession and desire are continuing themes throughout "A Series of Prints", the new exhibition by Linda Halverson on display at Rocda Gallery.

Combinations of etching, woodblock and linocut are used to create a series of untitled works which pose questions surrounding ideas of beauty in modern culture.

The perfection of some works' even colouring and half-lit silhouettes is contrasted by blank and torn paper at the bottom, illustrating Halverson's interest in the perfection of imperfection embodied in the printmaking process.

Appropriated images of women look out of the frame at the viewer, or up and away.

Layers of patterning are sometimes placed between the viewer and the framed woman.

Other works say, "Hush" over and over, the bold print and capital letters turning a whisper to a yell.

Continuity is celebrated here, in the palette of burgundies, greys and blues, the white framing and even sizing.

The continuity combines with the graphic quality of the work so that it takes on somewhat of an advertising role, or at least echoes the messages society receives through a bombardment of advertisements.

This is extremely effective in conveying a repeated message to the viewer: societal expectations of what is beautiful, how we should look and how we can "get it" are ideas to constantly explore and challenge.

Bridget Inder, "Fa'a Aotearoa", Otago Polytechnic School of Art gallery

Bridget Inder's exhibition of prints, "Fa'a Aotearoa" is on display at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art gallery.

Thirty-four monotypes hang in series to express Inder's interests in issues of cultural hybridity, family lineage and community.

Loosely translated to mean "The New Zealand Way", "Fa'a Aotearoa" merges a Samoan term with the indigenous name for New Zealand.

This refers to both her own mixed heritage and acknowledges the people of New Zealand, as well as links and ties between all Polynesian people.

Inder grew up in Central Otago, and the earthy browns, yellows, greens and reds of her work reflect the landscape of her upbringing.

The monotypes are also delicately and intricately hand-painted in traditional "siapo" designs found in the Otago Museum archives and teacher Marilynn Webb's private collection.

Siapo are the Samoan "tapa" and used to wrap things that are special, such as newborn babies and artefacts.

Inder is also especially interested in creating tension between textures, a method which helps to create an in-between space where two cultures meet.

These individual works form communities, existing in relation to each other and to the whole.

By bringing Samoan culture into a New Zealand context, Inder creates communities within communities.

This is a beautiful and solid exhibition that has strong personal ties, yet also speaks to a wider audience.