John Hurrell – 3 August, 2011

Here Auckland artist (but trained in Chelsea) Tony Drumm presents four varieties of sculpture: two types of cast object (basically plaster and polyurethane), figures of carved air-dried clay, and one decorative vanity table built out of cut and painted MDF.

The work is packed with planned references (and coincidental links) to Northern European art history, ranging from Rococo ornamentation, images of suspended heads by Durer and Goya to garden cherubs and tables by early Giacometti.

My view is that the plaster, Forton and clay works succeed a lot more than the polyurethane-based ones that use dressers as plinths, though the latter have an appealing symbolist imagery that seems connected to Dutch Still Life painting and possibly Surrealism. Plant forms abound in both types - lilies, roots, fungi and tree branches - all inventively incorporated with a plethora of incongruous items such as wigs, strings of beads, dressers, i-pods, earplugs, fluttering sparrows, hovering bees and aggressive moths.

Some of the dresser works are spoilt by the artist’s use of mirrored cubes and rectangles to support cast wigs and Datura flowers. Their assembling is not precise enough. They look tacky, for the cut edges need to be bevelled and set flush to hide the cross-sections of metal-coated glass, and the reflective properties and geometric forms aren’t integrated formally. They look incongruous.

Three other works, Girl with Atomosphere I-III, almost succeed because of their combination of classical statuary and  chaotic disintegration but the yellowing, dusty figurines are too small to have impact, and though provocatively subversive with their states of decay, too similar to garden ornaments.

The really compelling work is the set of three plaster Gypsum Flowers just lying directly on the floor. Leaves, roots and once hollow wigs are lumpily blended so they look vaguely abandoned severed heads, and as such are subtly disturbing. Yet their swelling undulations make them beautiful. They hold your gaze and act on your imagination.

Ghosts, a work in the front lower gallery by the street, is the other stand out item, despite the awkwardness of a Rubik Cube attached to a diagonally ascending tree trunk surrounded by toadstools and dandelions. Again mysterious and rich in detail, it has a suspended wig, with electronics and feeding insects partially visible inside. Near the door it’s a great introduction to the show.

John Hurrell

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