In 2003, the outrageous nature of Reuben Paterson’s untitled Gow Langsford exhibition leapt off the wall and smacked me in the face. Provocatively titled canvases ‘painted’ in glitter surrounded me, the paisley and floral patterns as well as kitsch palm trees yelled for attention. I was spellbound, drawn like a magpie to a shiny object, hypnotized by the light’s movement across the glitzy surfaces, drawn into the alternative worlds of artist-provocateur Reuben Paterson.
Today, Reuben has become an artist who is impossible to ignore. A proponent of the shiniest of media, his optically dazzling glitter paintings are now included in most of Australasia’s public collections. Paterson’s rapid fire career is as sparkling as his canvases. Born in 1973, he graduated from Auckland University’s prestigious Elam School of Fine Arts in 1997 and shortly thereafter became the youngest recipient ever of the international Moet et Chandon Art Fellowship.
In 1998, on his first ever ‘OE’ (overseas experience), Paterson journeyed to the Moet Chateau in Arvize, spending two months camped out in the designer fashion shows of Paris, studying fabric technique and structure amongst the collections of Helmut Lang, Issey Miyake, Comme des Garcon and Collette Dinnigan. Two years working in England followed before Reuben eventually returned home. In 2000, he was selected to participate in the Festival of Pacific Arts, Médiathèque du centre culturel, Tjibaou, Noumea, and the artist responded with what became his ‘breakout’ work, The Wharenui that Dad Built (Private collection, New Zealand).
A tribute to his late father Lewis, Reuben’s work re-presented Maori kowhaiwhai patterns in glitter dust, challenged conventional perceptions of Maori contemporary culture and established his trademark glitter technique. This immediately caught the attention of Gallerist Rhoda Fowler. The painting was returned to Auckland and shown by Te Tuhi in 2001.
In 2002, Auckland art dealers Gow Langsford included Reuben in a gallery group show. His first solo exhibition followed the next year, accompanied by a dazzling opening. Solo exhibitions with Gow Langsford continued in 2005, Narcissus, and in 2007, Reverie, as well as a solo show with the Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane 2005/6), He Aha te Mea Nui – What is the Greatest Thing? This exhibition is notable for the painting/installation acquired by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery entitled When the Sun Rises and the Shadows flee. Part retro-billboard and part South Pacific fantasy, this epic work (3500 X 7300mm) based on a Rarotongan Beach scene, appears at first as a left over memory of the artist from a visit to the capital Island of the Cook Islands in 2001.
Black silhouetted palm trees and a deep blue/black sea and beach scape are depicted in the work. Light flares off a reef of tinsel on the floor and large shimmering glitter discs on the painting are activated and ripple in the breeze of an electric fan. The viewer is drawn into a light between spaces, the interaction of sublime yet savage inevitability proving a spellbinding experience – leading a young viewer to ask ‘Mum, is that what heaven looks like’?
Following the death of his father in 2000 and the artist’s subsequent visit to Rarotonga in 2001; ‘Heaven’ is very much a subject matter of this work, the artist himself stating that his construct reveals a revamped Avaiki – the illusory promise of an ultimate destination, his manipulation of the 17th and 18th century European obsession with the Pacific ‘garden of Eden fantasy’ a clever consequence.
For such a vital career, much has already been written of Reuben’s work. The painter himself wants to mystify you with details of Maori genealogy (Whakapapa), personal family history, sexual politics, his relationships and friends, native land rights, fabric, fashion and wall paper design. Like a spiritually charged textile, they weave a cultural pattern that underscores the fundamental agenda of his artwork.
The surfaces of Reuben’s art works are mesmerizing, a veritable kaleidoscopic landscape. Invented in 1815 by Sir David Brewster, the Kaleidoscope became a mass European phenomenon, entire societies captivated by the sensory adventures it presented, essentially delivering a brand new view of the world. To describe an event or phenomenon as kaleidoscopic evoked a sense of perpetual transformation.
Given the continually shifting focus of visual culture within the late nineteenth century this is hardly surprising. Also consider the era of ‘Post-Post Modern/Contemporary Art Practice’ we find ourselves immersed in today and Reuben’s commentary is compelling. Further, reflect on the shockingly laborious construct of his paintings. As glitter is meticulously arranged to achieve his desired outcome, a sharp contrast is drawn to ‘conceptual contemporary’, where the artist rarely lays a hand on the actual, ‘art piece’ itself, a role substituted by ‘technicians’.
The experience of looking through a kaleidoscope is described as a process of being opened up to a world of different cultural sensations, a fundamental premise of Reuben Paterson which comes into startling focus when viewing the monumental work Whakapapa (get down upon your knees) a monolithic 64 sq. metre glitter installation of 16 individual paintings produced for the 6th Asia/Pacific Triennial (APT), Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2009/10).
Stepping aside from the painting’s sexual reference, the installation presents a synopsis of the artists work to date, which can be acknowledged as a significant totem pole, marking the emergence of considerable new influence. Reuben stated at the time, ‘APT is where locality and culture are inherent, rather than a curatorial consignment.’
Each painting contains a different combination of koru, kowhaiwhai and floral designs, marked out in his trademark medium of glitter and paint. However, delve a bit deeper and the experience is perhaps akin to that of fusing theories of Gordon Walters and Damien Hirst, piling them onto a semi trailer and having it run over you at high speed.
Immediately following the production of this work, Reuben geared up for his 4th solo show with Gow Langsford. Dear Beauty, Dear Beast. The underlying theme of the exhibition dealt with the ugly yet legally successful defense theory, the ‘provocation debate’, where women are raped and gay men bashed after having allegedly provoked heterosexual men.
Ferocious yet beautiful faces of wild cats (Tiger, Panther and Lions) are depicted in superb realism, the artist attaining an astonishing level of technique and presentation in his trademark media. The ‘beasts’ were then partnered with ‘softer’ canvases of flowers and kaleidoscope patterns and presented in a diptych format. No longer dominated by his traditional influences, Paterson’s works took on a fierce new social dimension, angry, beautiful and unapologetic. Works from this series were included in the 2010 Biennale of Sydney.
In July 2010, a return to the ‘paradise’ of the Cook Islands beckoned and Reuben took up the artist’s residency offered by BCA Gallery, Rarotonga. For the artist, it seemed inevitable that he return to the Cook Islands. Immersing himself in his tropical locale, he produced 16 new works including a series of experimental posters activated by black light.
The cultural significance of the Island – its spiritual association with New Zealand was fascinating to Paterson; the exhibition’s major series of works in part referenced the legendary migratory voyage of the seven canoes from Rarotonga to New Zealand. Given the significance of his 2005 work based on Rarotonga, and the title of his BCA residency show, a strong sense of renewal was also on offer for the artist. The exhibition, Aere E Akamotu – Start to Finish opened September 13th at BCA Gallery.
Reuben Paterson has noted, ‘The act of looking twice has always inspired and intrigued me; it’s the fact of seeing, and of not being able to see, of knowing, and of yet to learn, of being drawn into a picture to discover multiple layers of visual truths, those images that are obvious, and those that are hidden.’ Much like looking through a Kaleidoscope.
Australia Art Monthly, December 2010.
