A combined exhibition of New Work which sees each artist exploring the psychology of environment and the individuals relationship to habitat, specifically through architecture, interior space and the natural world.

Matthew Carter is interested in the spatio-psychology of the city and how individuals relate to urban and industrial environments. His new paintings explore new colour palettes in relation to urban spaces. Previously Carter has used ‘Contrast of saturation and tone’ as a basis for colour schemes. The city provides plenty of inspiration for the former of these strategies with its orange traffic cones and yellow painted lines amidst the greys of concrete and steel. With the latter is often found in Auckland with its intense sunlight.

Matthew uses a ‘contrast of hue’ without utilising extreme opposites as in ‘complementary’ colour palettes, but rather a muted or more subtle version of it. In the particular choice of hues Carter’s assessing a emotional response to the combination of colours. Using photography as a primary resource, the subjects of these works are shifted to a street level viewpoint familiar with those ‘flaneurs’ walking around the city.

Belinda Griffiths‘ suite of new work is titled ‘A Place of Wild Reaches’ and takes inspiration from her recent artist residency at Karekare Beach.

Whilst there, Belinda took regular walks along the rugged coastline of Karekare Beach.  Looking out towards the vast horizon of dark sand or getting up close to the towering cliff faces, one gets a strong sense of nature’s timelessness, it’s permanence and it’s mystery.
Belinda’s work explores those quiet moments where we are presented with situations that are beyond our understanding or outside of our control.  The landscape in these works serves as a metaphor for how we navigate those inner landscapes – how we respond to feelings like uncertainty, vulnerability and awe. Amongst the library of books at the residence, Belinda came across a poem by CK Stead written about Karekare. One line from the poem stayed with her and served as the title for this series:

“To those high flying cliffs, a place of wild reaches and eye illusions”‘
A Coastline and two facts’ by CK Stead.

Ramon Robertson’s sculpture engages with elements of conformity and union between people, structure and environment with a specific focus on the human condition and behaviour in the city These works navigate the complex layers of human interaction involved in the planning and deployment of ideas in creating a habitable environment which perhaps contradicts our perception of the city asa place of readiness, facility and simplicity.

Ramon’s work, often humorously, suggests a hidden syndicate or infrastructure of people behind the scenes. Four of the larger sculptures work together in pairs, as a group indicating a connectedness and willing participation in the human design process, while at the same time revealing a silent hierarchy and uniformity in roles and involvement in this collaborative process. His choice of materials (concrete, plaster and wood) link the universal components used in building and manufacture to the individual – making reference to not just the mass-standardisation of objects and resources used in the configuration of the city – but to the population also.