29th October – 15th November 2008

Break down and corrosion, destruction and new beginnings.

As we approach the time of year when we're celebrating the rites and rituals of the darker side of life, ROAR! gallery presents four shows which explore a fascination with, and experience of the darker side of the human mind.

Two southern artists, Diana Smillie and Tanya Johnson team up with two local artists, Christine Strang and Amanda Banks with a mixture of paintings, drawings, photography and sculptural explorations into the dual between lightness and darkness, reality and sur-reality.

Christine Strang

 The Secret Land: Dark Water

While she's peering into the wilds of the night and looking out across the sea and coastline, Christine searches for silhouetted trees and the shapes of the hillsides moving amongst the darkness.

Inspired by her midnight tramps, Christine channels peaceful nocturnal activities into painted landscapes denude of humans beings. The Secret Land: Dark Water reveals ghoulish landscapes whose composition is reminiscent of the layout of an empty theatre filled with an eerie glow.  These works hint at the artist's fascination with "seeing or sensing not the shades of black, but rather the different colours of black" which comes from observing many a closing of the dusk, and the lifting of the dawn.

Diana Smillie

 The Bitch Race

Hostility and rivalry between women is at the root of Diana Smillie's The Bitch Race.  Her large scale paintings reveal scary imagery of mythological and historical representations of creature type characters.  

Diana trained as a graphic artist, and has worked in book and fashion illustration.  Late last century, she decided to break away from the constraints of commissioned work to experiment with her own imagery. These works are a comment on the fact that "for so many women the driving obsession in their lives is to be the best, the prettiest, the sexiest, the most desirable and beautiful of all".

Through her painting, Diana is exploring the human psyche with images, some of which may be perceived as shocking, but which are nevertheless reflections of her own reality.

Tanya Johnson

 Terra Incognita

Tanya has an interest in an unusual subject matter - corrosion.  What may seem like one person's rusty junk, is actually real treasure for this Bluff Photographer.  

By spending time exploring the qualities and intricacies of extreme close-up Photography, Tanya presents a unique take on the world.   "The things that people walk past everyday - I present them differently" explains Tanya as she uses her camera's close-up lens to capture things the eye misses. The result is an intriguing mixture of spreading organic matter with painted abstract landscape. 

Amanda Banks 

 Adaptare

Inspired by a combination of the escalating decomposition of the man made world, and the more poetic process of natural decay, Amanda produces large, multilayered and textual canvases.

Their super-stressed and battered surfaces have an ambiguity to them - as you're not sure if you're looking at the 'good’ or the ‘bad' side of a painting.  Amanda covers the works in many layers with found and treasured items, and embeds them within the surface of the painting. 

EXHIBITION ARCHIVES

2006     2007     2008     2009