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

JH

Chris Corson-Scott Photos

AA
View Discussion

Of the interiors, the images of ruined buildings where the outdoor elements are encroaching are intriguing because time (an aspect prevalent in all Corson-Scott's images) seems a clear component here. This is obvious in a couple of Gisborne Sheep Shearers Woolstore and former New Zealand Shipping Company Building photos, but more subtly apparent in the Frank Sargeson House one where water stains on the roof and walls are detectable.

Auckland

 

Chris Corson-Scott
“We passed the setting sun.”

 

14 June - 15 July 2016

With this, Corson-Scott’s second show at Trish Clark’s, we see nine large analogue images made this (and last) year, presented as prints pinned to the wall or (as indicated by a couple) framed and under glass. Each image has been allocated an appropriate (optimum) size by the artist: so there are no cross-overs; no double ups. Either 150 x 189 cm, 140 x 175 cm, or 110 x 137 cm. It’s definite.

Five are of coastal scenes of beaches and cliffscapes, two are of the interiors of baches or workshops, and the others are of dilapidated buildings where roofs have collapsed, creating zones that combine aspects of the other two extremes. In all of the images there is some historical or cultural narrative or reference point, but in many of them, especially the land/seascapes, the glowing light in the documented coloured sky, sea or clay cliff-face, is extraordinary. This of course is referenced by the show’s title: a line from Emily Dickinson.

The sun’s presence (seemingly, a constantly reoccurring symbol for present-time, the experience of ‘now’) in these images is all pervading, as is the presentation of fine detail that can bounce off the information in the titles to fascinate the viewer. In Wildflowers in a Development near Tauranga (2015), it is the daisy chain we see in the central figure’s hair, and in Undersea Cables, Pink Beach, Whangapaoa (2015) the squiggles of coloured wire poking out of the sand in front of the exposed, descending, long diagonal, cable box.

The scale of these images makes them a little like abstract paintings, especially the outdoor shots where there are broad expanses of uniformly coloured sky or crumbling earth. Of the interiors, the images of ruined buildings where the outdoor elements are encroaching are intriguing because time (an aspect prevalent in all Corson-Scott’s images) seems a clear component here. This is obvious in a couple of Gisborne Sheep Shearers Woolstore and former New Zealand Shipping Company Building photos, but more subtly apparent in the Frank Sargeson House one where water stains on the roof and walls are detectable - or (outside) where the artist records his colleague Mark Adams pondering the fallen remains of the eroded Maori gardens at Awhitu Peninsula.

Whilst attempting to be cognisant of the past, these images also celebrate the present; overwhelmingly so, through their sensuality. A keen sense of the unique instance of each exposure (its temporal context) dominates.

John Hurrell

Print | Facebook | Twitter | Email

 

Recent Posts by John Hurrell

JH
Joyce Campbell, The Giant Rock, LiDAR photogravure

Unnerving Campbell

TWO ROOMS

Joyce Campbell

 

Dream Diary

 

23 May - 28 June 2025

 

JH
Conor Clarke, Follow Your Nose, 2025, single channel video, 25 min54 sec, Connor Clarke in collaboration with Ted Howard

Nocturnal Ornithology

TWO ROOMS

Conor Clarke


Night Writing


23 May - 28 June 2025

JH
Jonny Niesche, Fat Lava installation at Starkwhite, Auckland.

Exhilarating Niesche

STARKWHITE

Jonny Niesche

 

Fat Lava

 

3 May - 7 June 2025

JH
Installation shot of some of Jude Rae's various objects at Two Rooms

Painted Potted-Plant Parts

TWO ROOMS

Jude Rae

 

various objects


11 April - 17 May 2025