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Another Araluen Showing
“…Most are over-priced…”
Araluen – the self-ordained citadel of Alice Spring’s culture – has once again mustered together another varied conglomeration of arty miscellanea. Contrary to one critic’s observations, I found the “Converge” art exhibition at Araluen cluttered, unco-ordinated and, with one exception, decidely amatuerish.
Resident guru, Rod Moss, physically dominates the display with his predictable Aboriginal subjects, obviously painted from photographs; the unframed pieces thrusting themselves at the observer with an almost arrogant exhibitionism. Most are over-priced, reflecting more of a rampant ego than anything else. Moss has become fixated on Aboriginal subjects. Whether this is to cash in on a prevailing fad, a mis-guided sense of do-gooderism, or just plain, old-fashioned patronisation, is difficult to assess.
Henry Smith as a painter-sketcher is an excellent sculptor. Most items are derivative in content utilising stereotyped symbolism to illustrate neurotic introspection into self-analysis: dark, gloomy offerings that seem to be more therapeutic than inspirational.
Junk recyclist, Daniel Murphy, demonstrates some growth in his work after languishing for far too long on his laurels as the pet of local middle-aged matrons. His main exhibit, a barbed wire goanna, overshadows the lesser insignificant metal pieces of Alan Bethune, cowering nearby.
The array of Damian Smerdon’s lamps dangling from the ceiling and threatening to brain anyone who ventures too close are incompatible with the general temper of the exhibition. Why they are included is beyond my comprehension. One can only assume that Araluen’s guiding lights identified too closely with Mr Smerdon’s lamps.
Paintings, large and tiny, by Sue McLeod are poorly executed, almost infantile in appearance, revealing a serious lack of experience and maturity. Does this minor work really represent the best of local art?
Is Ms Kieran Finnane (art critic for a local newspaper) serious in her appraisal of this minor dabbler, or is she merely praising a fellow filly in the gender stakes?
Looking at Ms McLeod’s juvenile efforts, we are then expected to digest her pseudo intellectualism when she babbles: “I use a map-like composition as a means of expressing non-linear time: scenes emerge through a stream of consciousness where memory and dream blend … freeing the narrative from the temporal constraints of conscious …” And other pretentious mumbo-jumbo.
Ursula Burmeister’s mysterious ochred works on paper are, perhaps, the best of this current exhibition. Her style is subtle, attracting the eye and stimulating the imagination – truly an artist whose international status is obvious but, at the same time, unfortunately misplaced in Araluen’s jumbled venue.
-Jacqueline H. Chee.
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