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7/12/2012

Shane Cotton / Angelica Mesiti

Institute of Modern Art - IMA, Brisbane

Shane Cotton

The Hanging Sky

curated by Justin Paton

Since the early 1990s Shane Cotton (Ngati Rangi, Ngati Hine, Te Uri Taniwha) has been one of New Zealand's most acclaimed painters. His works of the 1990s, with their sepia-toned landscapes and intricate inscriptions, played a pivotal part in that decade's debates about place, belonging, and bicultural identity. In the mid 2000s, however, Cotton headed in a spectacular and unexpected new direction—skywards. Employing a sombre new palette of blue and black, he painted the first in what would become a major series of skyscapes—vast, nocturnal spaces where strange birds speed and plummet. From these spare and vertiginous beginnings, Cotton's skyscapes have become, across the last half-decade, increasingly complex and provocative—incorporating ragged skywriting and the ghostly features of upoko tuhituhi or 'marked heads'. Far from defusing these words and images, Cotton's paintings keep them charged and alive, insisting that the issues they raise must be reckoned with here and now. Above all, his recent works insist that painting itself is a space of exploration and possibility—a place of leaps, freefalls and charged collisions between different orders of imagery. The Hanging Sky brings together highlights from the past half-decade alongside a body of new work made especially for the exhibition, including one vast new mural-scale painting, a spectacular suite of 'target' prints, and a line-up of painted baseball bats that suggest both trophies and weapons.

The Hanging Sky is curated by Justin Paton and organised by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu in association with the IMA. The IMA thanks IMA Supporters and Hotel Urban. Shane Cotton is represented by Michael Lett, Auckland; Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington; and Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne and Sydney. The IMA will close 23 December 2012–14 January 2013.

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Angelica Mesiti
Rapture (Silent Anthem)

Many Christian faiths believe that, at the end time, God will directly uplift into Heaven all true believers still alive. This is called the 'Rapture'. For her ten-minute silent video Rapture (Silent Anthem), Sydney-born artist Angelica Mesiti filmed fresh-faced teenagers in the mosh pit at a rock concert. Shot in slow motion, from a concealed location beneath the stage, her tightly cropped footage suggests a scene of collective religious fervour and spritual transport—you can't tell that it was filmed at a concert. We see kids lost in their worship of rock gods performing just out of reach. Eyes open wide, sunlight reflects off beautiful young limbs, water thrown into the air mixes with sweat, hands clap and wave. Scrambling the spiritual and the secular, Rapture took out the $20,000 Blake Prize for Religious Art in 2009. It was the first video work to ever win. Angelica Mesiti is represented by Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne and Sydney.

Institute of Modern Art
at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
420 Brunswick Street / PO Box 2176
Fortitude Valley - Brisbane QLD 4006
Gallery Hours
Tuesday–Saturday 11am–5pm
Open Late Thursday until 8pm
We are closed to the public during exhibition changeovers, on public holidays, the full Easter weekend, and over the Christmas/New Year break.

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