51Auckland
Cathy Carter Wai Wai Wai
nkb Gallery
29 May–18 June
DON ABBOTT
One could erroneously predict that
Cathy Carter is a Pisces. Her large,
multifaceted photographs depict water
in many guises: as playground, as life
force, as a source of terror and as a
toxic sludge.
Most of the works in Wai Wai Wai
are large composite images of people
at the seaside. These are photographs
that Carter has taken which she
then manipulates to compose and
construct a final digital collage. They
are endlessly fascinating and reward
sustained scrutiny. The eye-of-God
perspective encourages guilt-free
voyeurism (and empathy) that owes
not a little to the panoramas of Bruegel
and Bosch; any painterly comparison
is valid from a distance too, as Carter’s
images impress as strong constructions
of form, colour and texture.
Like a vicarious vacation the images
are sharp—body types, fashion sense
and tattoos are all clearly visible.
Looking at an image such as Curl
Curl Bathers is like lying on a beach,
half-dozing, half-observing the
world-at-play pass by. Carter screws
with photography’s expected role
of catching a moment in time, and
arranges individuals to recur in the
same image, in a different place, in a
different pose, involved in a different
activity,whichthenencouragesa
viewing process that is pregnant with
flashes of déjà vu and anticipation.
Her super-zoomed, high-resolution
hyperreality is reminiscent of the
clarity of the surrealists, and many of
Carter’s created myths could fit well
with them: for example, the tide mark
between ocean and beach becomes a
symbol of the line that separates safety
and danger, control and abandon,
culture and nature.
Carter’s bathers and surfers are so
seductive that their condition is taken
on by the viewer: immersed, relaxed,
enjoying themselves; time spent with
them is not dissimilar to a mini-break
to somewhere else. Infra_Moana
(2018) looks like a nice place to be,
even if the sea has been coloured a
virulent yellow, hinting at concerns of
algal blooms or even chemical spills.
Conserving and protecting water
and the places it flows are strong
motifs in Wai Wai Wai, but Carter’s
approach is celebratory rather than
didactic. She aims to highlight issuesby engagement with her photographs;
indeed her sense of fun is irrepressible
and infectious.
Other works expand the
exhibition’s scope. Motu-o Kura,
Eventide has heightened hues, and it
glows in its lightbox like a mythical
gem. Pounamu Rapids is a tower of
turbulent sea water, with no hint of
land, and its exaggerated jade colour
speaks not of myth but terror. The
reflective and surface qualities of
water are brought into the gallery
by a pair of photographs printed
onto a thick Perspex base, an effect
that is unsettling and soothing,
while a triangle of salt in the corner
conceptually brings the ocean to the
gallery.
For Carter the ocean is precious,
mysterious and a valid place to spend
time. The same can be said of Wai Wai
Wai.(above)
CATHY CARTER Curl Curl Bathers 2019
Digital photograph, 1600 x 760 mm.
(right) Cathy Carter ’s Wai Wai Wai at nkb
Gallery, May 2019, showing from left Light
Bending Zip (2018), Icebergs #2 & Motu-o
Kura, Eventide (2019)