DAVID RYAN
RAIN TALKING MOUNTAIN


12 August – 7 September 2018

Working from specific sites and locations in New Zealand and abroad, the observation and reconstruction of a journey is one of the constants in the work. Returning with a scribbled note, a random line, blank spaces or an assembly of fragments, episodes and insights taken during a journey help to formalize and shape an idea for a work.

The fieldwork is presented as a collection of objects, boxes and books that responds to various geographic sites in emulation of Victorian voyages of explorers, surveyors, amateur adventurers and artists. The paintings are derived from the observation of various episodic events, skeins and membranes of detail and multiplicity, focus and dispersal and the mercurial light of clouds, squalls and sunbursts and the elusive experience of moving through the transient boundaries between land, sea and sky, rather than a single stationary view.

Despite the interest in place; and the elemental aspects of nature, the art works become a negation of the actual experience of the journey, an obverse reflection and an act of disappearance and represents something other than what is there.

David Ryan

 


David Ryan was born in Australia. He has studied at the Central School of Art, National Gallery of Victoria School of Art, and Victorian College of Art and completed an MFA at RMIT in Melbourne. In 2004, David moved to Nelson where he continues to live and work.

David's work deals with travel, place, mapping and memory involving specific places and sites in the world particularly those he has travelled to - India, the Himalayas, South East Asia, North Africa, and Australia. His journeys emerge through his art in totemic landscapes that represent conceptual and philosophical perceptions of time and space. In emulation of 19th century explorers, surveyors, amateur adventurers and artists, the mapmaking and painted topographical images begin as sheets of paper joined together with surgical tape and kept in a mapper's pad whilst travelling. His method uses notations, visual fieldwork and drawings from specific landscape and geographic sites. A multi-media artist, David creates installation works which demonstrate his fluid skill through painting, sculpture, electronic music, and digital animation. David has held solo exhibitions throughout Australia and in New Zealand, has been part of numerous group exhibitions, and has held curatorial positions.

 


Light Nelson
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