Review: Vein of grotesque runs in festival offerings
Excerpt: Auckland Herald, Saturday Mar 12, 2011 by T.J McNamara
The vein of grotesquery continues in the work of New Zealand resident artist Liam Barr, whose work at the John Leech Gallery represents a huge advance on his previous exhibitions. His painting has become more subtle, more delicate and his vision sharper. This show, called Pakeha, is devoted to images of 19th century English immigrants looking uncertain in their new country on the other side of the world.
A typically potent image is Mistress Molly. A tightly corseted lady, her head held rigid by a boned collar, delicately fans herself in front of a bed, under a wall of muskets. Her chest is tattooed with the heads of her conquests. She is a strange creature in an alien land and the image is skilfully and thoughtfully realised. Tattoos play a part in other paintings of men who lived with the Maori and adopted the moko.
The most telling portraits are the ones with unexpected detail that reinforces the sense of well-intentioned intruders. A notable example is Promise and Prayer, with child-like figures having a simple picnic with teapot and cups under the head of deer they have introduced and a dead tree with a lake and empty land in the background. Carved on the tree is the hopeful rubric "Home Sweet Home" which it demonstrably is not.
The tension in these paintings of symbolic figures of 19th century pakeha is on several levels. There is a tension between colonials and the landscape as well as a strong sexual tension, notably in Aurora's Figaro. The image is quite complex. A girl with a whip stands on a tin drum while a boy with a horse's head cavorts before her. In his hands are the coconut shells that were used to make clip-clop sound effects in the theatre of the time. They are in a tidy garden but beyond the gate is again a wide trackless landscape. The woman in the centre of Amberley, with her fox fur draped around her shoulders, is a powerful image of lonely repressed desire for many things as she clutches a musket for protection. All of these images go much further into human realities than the stylised figures that dominated the artist's previous work.
These three exhibitions grace the festival but show that contemporary artists do not seek beauty for itself. They are looking for previously unexplored feelings and means of expression.
Press Release: Pakeha - Text by Kelly Ana Moray
Fiction and history collide in Pakeha, Liam Barr's latest suite of narrative paintings which depict those first tentative steps, environmentally, socially and physically, of the Pakeha on the Empire's youngest country.
These paintings, these intriguing characters, are incredibly rich in story as Barr meticulously, and very beautifully visually references New Zealand art/history; the colonisation process; the land; cartography; and the psychological, sociological and domestic impact of these things on the individual.
The main body of work comprises of fictional characters: the likes of Mistress Molly and Faethm are vessels for narratives regarding Pakeha New Zealand's cultural mythology with its themes of displacement, determination and toil and the human and environmental cost of those things. And this is no triumphant colonial history, beneath the veneer of Victorian finery and palatial abodes, the damage can be clearly seen. These are indeed turbulent times. And like any good history story, Pakeha is underpinned by real life personalities, in themselves a part of New Zealand's mythological and cultural fabric. There's Kimble Bent, the Pakeha Hauhau, John Rutherford and Walter Lawry Buller, with his beard full of birds.
Pakeha offers a wealth of fascinating, if not always admirable stories, which lie at the heart of Pakeha New Zealand's young, and at times violent, history and the impact of that on not only the people but the land itself.
Review: Raise a glass to the small things
Excerpt: Auckland Herald, Saturday Sept 20, 2008 by T.J McNamara
At the Warwick Henderson Gallery, Liam Barr is thinking grand in a show, Grand Land, in which he seeks to combine reality and myth, history and the present. He has evolved a stylised Cubist Maori figure to represent Tane and taniwha. His style works splendidly in the painting, Tane, where the great god figure grows from the land toward the sky with the bush-covered hills becoming his cloak and feathers the snow on the mountain. He is the source of the water of life. The stylised face works very well as a mythological figure.
This is also true in Taku Turangawaewae where a monster born from the imaginings of the people confronts a kiwi, a much older inhabitant of the land. A newer arrival is signalled by a little church. The confrontation is awkward but the landscape is impressive.
In several paintings there is some fine work portraying lake, hill and sky. The quality of this landscape painting gives support to the awkward figures. Yet the awkwardness prevails altogether in works that refer to recent memory, such as the one that shows figures crammed in a pedal car on the footpath in front of a diary.
The real inspiration lies in the landscape and the myth, not in memories of icecream in summer...
Press Release: Artnews, Spring 2008
Excursions into Grand-Land
Wellington based artist Liam Barr surrenders 6 of his best in his upcoming show Grand-Land to be held at the Warwick Henderson Gallery. With the success of Hei Tiki - Hi Mate, his first solo-show with WHG, Barr pushes the theme of his tiki styled works to new depths and beyond. By combining the tiki figures with representational yet stylised figures, he opens up a dialogue for new avenues of exploration.
The overall theme of the show revolves around loose interpretations of a monarchical system, where quirky and often humourous perversions of kiwiana, Maori mythological figures, even kids in a pedal car act as permutations of kings and queens reigning over their moody and distinctly New Zealand domain. Throughout the works with their embodiments of power, there are woven softer narratives, where relationship, personal journey, cultural identity and mythology beg us to look into the well in search of deeper meaning.
‘Tane’, reigning omnipresent over his rich, abundant land, is a celebration of the New Zealand landscape but also perhaps a reminder of how much we have to lose. In stark contrast ’Mixed Bag’ bombards the viewer with iconography of a by-gone era, when everything could be bought for a dollar and a trip to the dairy marked the high point of a day.
There is no doubt there are subtle nods toward the pop surrealist & lowbrow art movement currently making huge impact in Britain and the US and offers a glimpse of things to come.
Little slips past Barr’s gaze as he weaves into his works precious New Zealand imagery and simply invites the viewer to engage with these narrative works, to draw out emotion and memory sparked by the New Zealand experience.
‘Grand-Land’ opens at the Warwick Henderson Gallery, Sept 9 - 27, 2008
Press Release: Arts Editors Pick of the week
The NewZealand Herald: Time Out Magazine - Aug 9, 2007 by T.J McNamara
Warwick Henderson Gallery announces the first Auckland solo exhibition of emerging artist Liam Barr, "Hei Tiki - Hi Mate".
Barr's new exhibition references the tiki as an icon of New Zealand, drawing from the traditional imagery of the 'carved' tiki, from a rich and loaded history. These paintings reveal a contemporisation of the tiki where it appears as an exaggerated sculptural figure, anachronistically placed in both poignant and revealing situations.
There is a strong sense of narrative within this series. Although the 'tiki' carries common elements within all the paintings, each tiki appears to bear a new character. This central theme is symbolic of the larger picture which reflects an aura of pathos, displacement and insight into contemporary New Zealand with all its paradoxes.
Embedded within this narrative is a light and humorous perversion of kiwiana, where European icons have merged congruously with a traditional culture. In a satirical yet poignant way Liam Barr has bridged and depicted the effects of Biculturalism since European contact. Throughout this new body of work the tiki appears as the common denominator, riding a bucking moa amusement ride in "The Mighty Moa", carving in "Haere mai he tete kura - The arrival of a new frond" and almost dancing in front of a graffiti throw-up in "Che".
Bent in mourning "Gods Own" the tiki provokes thought on the issue of Maori spiritualism and colonial religions. In "Kina" many of New Zealand's well known icons are played out where an empty "swappa" crate becomes a seat. There is a distinct playfulness within this image which portrays the cliche of a 'kiwi summer holiday' - a pale pink and purple caravan complete with kiwiana butterfly, and the tiki figure in full strum singing to his guitar. Here Barr's humour is backdropped with the vastness of a typical (beautiful) New Zealand coastal landscape.In "Te Onepu Pakaha - The Sand Castle", Barr states 'Koro (respected elder) rests easy at his whare, his home, his castle. He is comforted by the natural state of his environment where nostalgia blows from the north of a life so long ago, it could have been someone elses.'
With a long history of storytelling Barr chooses his cues - irony, satire and playfulness to magnify and perhaps draw a long bow to the duality of cultures. These paintings however are rich in warmth and light humour with more than a nod to the reality of Biculturalism. The brushwork, detail and compositional qualities of these exemplify the three dimensional quality of the subject matter. Painting of this standard and originality is well worth viewing.
Journeys to the other me
Press Release: Fremantle Herald - Dec 2003,
This exhibition explores journey, and the multiple manifestations of what it is to journey, Mankind's personal evolvement and of what it is to belong to the ever evolving throng of movement and the passing of mass, the passing of time & space, the passing of knowledge. No man woman or child on their journey is complete without recognising their relationship to the earth and the earths beasts. They represent a connection to our psyches. Just as we make intellectual and emotional meaning from bright colours to dull colours so do we in regards to the animal that walk, fly and swim the earth. The environment holds a strong connection to where and who we are at any one time. It not only places us in the picture geographically, but culturally as well.
Artist Statement:
Although I have been painting for many years as a recreational painter and also in my
profession as a graphic designer/illustrator, I am a relative newcomer to exhibiting.
When I decided leave design to paint full-time it became clear how the disciplines of
conceptualising and visualising played such an extremely important role in the
development of my style. My aim is to create tight, conceptually resolved works expressing
the content of heart, mind and emotion.
Each journey takes approximately 4 weeks and is worked from start to finish before
another is started. This method keeps me focussed and emotionally tied to the subject.
As a child growing up in a small town in Scotland and an even smaller town NZ, I believed
my interest in animals would lead me to zoology. I would copy from wildlife books and
draw stuffed animals in the museums. Art books of old masters and their dedication to
anatomical precision, narrative and symbolic content were next to be discovered.
Dropping out of school at 16 I was employed as a trainee commercial artist, making
traditional stained glass, leadlight windows and hand lettered monuments.
Getting a graspof the three essential tools that have sustained my art practice. Process,
Patience and Passion.
By 20 I travelled extensively tasting the spice of distant cultures and absorbing colours
never to be realised as pigment on canvas. I came to Perth in 1989 and worked as a
graphic artist before heading overseas again, this time to India.
On my return I studied Graphic Design/illustration (Diploma of Art & Design) at the Central
College of TAFE. Graduating at the top of my year I went on to work at some high profile
studios.Searching for more variety I freelanced for a couple of year and opened a studio in
Fremantle. Whilst working for myself as a designer was financially rewarding and to some
extent satisfying, I found I was losing my connection to myself, the earth and my vocation.
At 37 my world of illusion is just awakening and ready to take a journey to the other side of me. ‘Adrift’ opens at the Fremantle Art Centre, Dec 2003.
PUBLICATIONS
New Zealand's Favourite Artists 2
Review: Country's rich artistry unfolds on page - The Wellingtonian - Wednesday June 4, 2008 by Rob Olsen
Bringing New Zealand's best artists out of their nooks and crannies is something author and artist Denis Robinson is doing, book by book.
Sixty artists feature in the second volume of Favourite Artists, edited by Robinson, a former Wellingtonian.
Among them are Wellington-based painters Liam Barr, Jason Hicks, Lawrence Leitch, Timon Maxey and Emma Wright.Robinson invited more than 80 galleries to submit their four top-selling artists and then filtered through them to find the 60 required. It was tough to discard some but if two were of the same style, one did not make it through. "That's the difficult part," he says. Robinson has been a designer all his life and tries to do a bit of painting "now and then" but says in recent years he has been too busy on the books, the first of which was published in 2006. It sold well and became the biggest-selling book of contemporary New Zealand artists, so it was decided to do a follow-up.
Robinson says it's hard to gauge the size of the art community in New Zealand but the local scene is in good shape compared to Australia. "In New Zealand it seems every nook and cranny has an artist or a gallery. You have no trouble finding artists."He says he tries to "nationalise" artists if they are popular locally.
"The book is helping to de-parochialise them ... all their work gets snapped up by locals," he says.
"That's the thing; I'm dragging them out and showing them to New Zealand."
However, some artists are selling their work overseas. West Coast artist Jane Riley has gone to New York this month because of the popularity of her work there. The price of art in New Zealand can range from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands. Auckland-based artist Tim Wilson's work sells from anywhere between $30,000 and $80,000, and most of it is exported. Robinson says Kiwis are very aware of art, thanks mainly to the school system. Art has been compulsory since the 1940s and children are exposed to it from the early years at school, right through, he says. Robinson describes Wellington-based Liam Barr as an artist just coming on the scene and who uses Maori mythology, and his own imagination in his work; Upper Hutt-based Jason Hicks' paintings tell a story; Kapiti-based painter Lawrence Leitch's work is "super realism"; Timon Maxey works with paints and graphic prints and Wellington city-based Emma Wright's work is mixed media on canvas.