52
Auckland
Andrew Barns-Graham
Cumulative Intentions
Grey, 14–25 May
DON ABBOTT
With his new exhibition at Grey,
Cumulative Intentions, Andrew Barns-
Graham has fashioned an elaborate,
compelling cultural mix. Onto
each of his models he has painted
the outward vestiges of culture—
costume, headdress, jewellery, body
adornment—from various parts
of the world. His characteristically
aloof, impassive female models are
dressed in folk costume from Holland
and Russia, scarves with Chinese
or Polynesian pattern are draped
around their shoulders, and Arabic
or Swahili headdress is poised above
their faces. The details of this attire are
exquisitely painted, as each idealised
woman presents a melange of culturalreferencesinfrontofanequally
stylised landscape of sea, sky and
earth.
Barns-Graham paints zones of
engagement; those areas where
cultures encounter each other, where
they meet with and alter each other.
Like a smoking gun, a rowboat lurks
in almost every work in the show,
sometimes playing a more prominent
role, as in The Pioneering Glisten. The
boat acts as a motif of arrival, of the
new things that are brought by new
peoples, of where they have come
from and where they are arriving at.
The show is a hymn to immigration,
to the mix of cultures that eventuates
as the world becomes a smaller and
more interconnected place, and to
the richness that each cultural group
contributes to the overall mix.
Several elements elevate Cumulative
Intentions beyond being just a
collection of paintings on the wall.
The artist has laid black tape on the
floor, leading from one painting to
another, following the thread of ideas,
symbols and motifs that are shared in
the images. The resulting grid of lines
creates an architectural floor-level
web, which echoes the visual medley
on the walls of the gallery. The legs of
the table and the corners of the couch
become extra nodes to this network,
adding ideas of socialisation, food and
writing into the weight of cultures.
This grid takes on a temporal quality;
slightly scuffed, it shows evidence of
previous visitors to the gallery, each
person adding an individual culture to
the show’s mesh.
The paintings are installed
in the room so that the horizon
line—depicted in every image—is
maintained. The progression of works
around the room rises and falls,
anchored by this constant horizon. It
operates like a spirit level, establishing
order and coherence amongst images
of various sizes and orientations, as
well as the subjects and their cultures.
The palette of the show is
remarkably uniform. Overpainted
silver allows skies to shimmer, and
pink trees punctuate, but the show is
predominantly two-toned: land and
sea are green and the sky is brown. It
is as if the artist, in search of culture,
has gone tunnelling; to look outwards
he has turned inwards; in order to get
to know others, he has worked hard at
getting to know himself.(left) ANDREW BARNS-GRAHAM
The Pioneering Glisten 2019
Acrylic, ink & oil on canvas, 1100 x 1400
mm.
(below) Andrew Barns-Graham’s
Cumulative Intentions at Grey, May 2019