Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to EyeContact. You are invited to respond to reviews and contribute to discussion by registering to participate.

JH

Concrete canvas - carpet ‘cut-outs’

AA
View Discussion

Frater's removed shapes are often undulating lyrical arabesques or skinny weedy slashes and they provide a sort of frame for the carpet-layer's accidental ‘artistry' - on a concrete ‘canvas' that peeks through.

Auckland

Richard Frater

25 July - 22 August 2009

This project by Frater continues the series of installations involving carpet he has created for venues like the ARTSPACE office and HSP in Christchurch. At Te Tuhi it is different though. He has been given a gallery with a floor covered in impeccable dark blue weave, and allowed to cut into it, remove shapes and fold sections back. The result has been to expose sections of the concrete floor where splodges of brushed-on glue were used to fasten the carpet.

Peeling away layers of carpet has revealed dried gluey incrustations normally flattened out and hidden after the wet adhesive was initially brushed onto the floor. Broken away, encrusted little islands have formed on the carpet’s folded back, lined underside when Frater later yanked his Matissean-shaped sections away.

This pale brown residue is mostly seen on the concrete and is surprisingly beautiful with its delicate transparent hues. Parallel bristle marks abound within the hardened translucent paste, plus splashes of spilled white wall paint and other more watery stains. There is an archaeology going on here on the floor that relates to what Frater’s ACFA colleague Patrick Lundberg has been doing on gallery walls, but more obvious. The marks are more spectacular.

Frater’s removed shapes are often undulating lyrical arabesques or skinny weedy slashes and they provide a sort of frame for the carpet-layer’s accidental ‘artistry’ - on a concrete ‘canvas’ that peeks through. There is an odd rivalry going on between inner and outer marks separated by several years. A bizarre, inadvertent collaboration; a duet.

 

Print | Facebook | Twitter | Email

 

Recent Posts by John Hurrell

JH
Louise Bourgeois, The Couple, 2003, aluminum, on loan from a private collection. Photo: Christopher Burke, © The Easton Foundation. VAGA at ARS/Copyright Agency, 2025 |

Brilliant Visceral Bourgeois

AUCKLAND ART GALLERY TOI O TAMAKI

Louise Bourgeois


In Private View


Curated by Natasha Conland


27 September 2025 - 17 May 2026

JH
Nick Austin, Fear of Loneliness, 2025, mixed media, 2160 x 1800 x 200 mm overall, Detail.

The Potential Dangers of Seductive Art History, Perhaps?

COASTAL SIGNS

Nick Austin

 

Breath Spectrum

 

25 September 2025 - 25 October 2025

JH
Installation of Simon Denny's 'The Future' exhibition at Michael Lett.

Boom Boom: Hell on Earth

MICHAEL LETT

Simon Denny

 


The Future

 


3 September - 11 October 2025

JH
Ammon Ngakuru, Jonah and the Whale, 2025, oil on canvas, 1850 x 1650 mm; Maggie Friedman, Untitled (Jeff Koons, Party Hat, 1995-97, The Broad Museum Los Angeles, 2025), 2025, oil on canvas, two elements each 1830 x 1145 mm

Friedman and Ngakura @ Coastal Signs

COASTAL SIGNS

Maggie Friedman & Ammon Ngakura

 

Icon

 

Curated by Sally McMath

 

13 August - 13 September 2025