Peter Dornauf – 22 August, 2025

ȧ la Tōrea Pango (variable oystercatcher) is a collaborative collection of works by nine different artists currently on show at Laree Payne Gallery, Hamilton. What is somewhat unusual about this array of pieces is how they intertwine with each other at various interpretative levels.

So we have Andrew Barber’s, Stiff Blanket, (A man as a bird in a blanket) which presents as a kind of Swanndri confection on a stretcher to mimic an abstract painting; think Rosalie Gascoigne without the letters or the grids of Andrew Farquhar or further afield, Ad Reinhardt. Barber in his day job is in the business of protecting New Zealand native birds, and he, accordingly, perches his canvas (blanket of protection) on a low plinth of pink wooden legs to reference the Oyster Catcher. By turns quirky, charming and humourous, here we see high art in an engaging exchange with Kiwi vernacular in a playful configuration for serious ends.

Next to this we have an even more coltish and frisky work with more than a touch of the impish - two ersatz rocking horses, come sawhorses, called Orange Builders Pong with Ear Bonnet or Protective Muff. What this mouthful presents us with is a concoction of elements that together resemble a sawhorse turned into a kind of toy, complete with ears made from a glove and tail constructed from a hand duster. Stroller wheels as hooves and a button, which pressed, plays a tune, completes the picture, or sculpture in this case. Again charming, funny and arch. We are in an arena where art mixes it up with designer plaything with the smallest nod to the notion of protection, courtesy of PANiA!

And a toy is again invoked in the third member of the team, Te Maari and her dolls made of felt and wood with crocheted elements, sporting Maori motifs and given the names of bird, one of which is Oyster Catcher. The playful is being employed here to signal matters of social and cultural significance.

Then up steps Dr P with a couple of loaves of real bread placed on a wooden chopping board. Called Bird Sculpture, what we have here is an altered readymade, altered because this sliced Vogels loaf, held together by thin bamboo stakes, has been left outside for the birds to peck at, then rescued before it was completely demolished. A collaborative piece between ‘man’ and members from the avian population.

As is becoming apparent, there is a bird theme starting to emerge here. But we’re not done. A.A.M. Bos has found a distressed plastic snail trap and ‘turned’ it into a bird bath and water trough. This readymade, hung from the ceiling of the gallery (recalling the Dadaists), has undergone a transformation from common object to art piece, from animal trap to animal enhancer.

That transformational exercise is given a final twist in the work of JBB & Greg Thomas who, in a direct link with the work of Dr P, have taken Vogel’s advertising, screen printed the text and formatted it into plastic bags containing information about the original mixed grain.

The final flourish sees Prairie Hatchard-McGill create some bespoke curtains for the single window in the gallery. This baroque collaged fabrication, Scrape, mixed media elements on silk and linen, presents something that conjures with the past, florid and blowsy, an excuse to indulge in a kind of broken-down flamboyance complete with dangling attached pearls.

Altogether this is a show that kicks up its heels in a very postmodern spirited and good humoured manner, engaging the viewer at multiple levels. Well worth a visit, a co-curated show, courtesy of Laree Payne Gallery and Mokopōpaki.

Peter Dornauf 

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