Andrew Rankin
A door ajar
The work explores the potential relationships between the image and the object and how they might determine the conditions between themselves and the viewer; an investigation into perception and illusion through the use of photography and its framing.
"Untitled, signed. Titled, unsigned. Object", has developed from a painting obtained at a school gala.1 This painting depicts a forest scene, a romantic, auratic, and aesthetic appreciation of nature. It lacks a clear horizon, resulting in an unease or imbalance. It draws our gaze deep into the painting, an illusionistic space firmly situated in the world of painting.
This unease is perhaps further enhanced through manipulations of the viewing plane and the disruptions of the sense of frontality, this allows us to move between the illusionistic worlds of painting and photography and the physical object.
The project takes its cue from several key philosophical concepts including Peirce’s semiotic values and his typology of signs ‘icon, index and symbol’, Baudrillard’s simulacrum and Benjamin’s essays on aura and the image. An estrangement of the usual conventions offers new abstract potential in the work, divesting it of its usual meanings and opening up new possibilities. When we see an image or an object we see more than just what is visually in front of us. An image can convey movement through the use of line and we can then think of a static image as being in motion. The same is true for the object; when we see an object from only one side we are still able to conceive of its volume.
- “Hillsborough painter Jean Boulton learnt her skills at Kelston night school. She has exhibited with the New Zealand fellowship of artists for the past six years. Mrs Boulton specializes in landscape watercolour and oils.” WL 22.8.1974, Auckland Library research center.
