Deck: First CutMay 12 - June 7, 2009
 There is a lightness and freshness to Neil Dawson's new sculpture at Jonathan Smart Gallery. Playing cards, so humble and everyday, have been given a gentle sculptural tweak.  The exhibition is called 'Deck: First Cut', a title that hints at further possibilities. Dawson has taken six cards from different packs, screenprinted onto stainless their detail front and back, powdercoated the steel, then cut and rolled the works using their patterned backs as his starting point. Patterns of wheel, filigree and diamond have been immaculately reproduced on .7mm thin stainless, then flexed and opened up. The sculptures have a playfulness on the floor, as if they've been curled, dropped or placed casually, blown in by the latest breeze. We see six cards twice, each being an edition of 6. Hence their print-like status, presented with genuine material ease at $4000 a cut. Now, there's experience for you. Selected works
1. Ace of Diamonds 2. Four of Diamonds 3. The Joker 4. Ten of Spades 5. Twelve of Clubs 6. Two of Hearts All works are from 2009
Light, Sound: BuiltMay 12 - June 7, 2009
Richard Reddaway
Organic meets the immaculate in Richard Reddaway's new exhibition, 'Light, Sound: Built', the artist's first show at Jonathan Smart Gallery for nine years. Immaculate is the rimu veneer on the hand-made speakers in Unresolved Music Part 1, their clean rectilinear forms presented as clusters of the modular. This is a modernism that grows over as well as out from the wall. But while organic, it also exudes measure, utter control and restraint. That is, until one hears the sound. The crisp dripping of water feels in step. Sonically, its ripple and bounce around the space echo Reddaway's sculpted forms. But the shrill whistling and tribal chanting of young men watching rugby is unexpected - a layering of the sporting other brought in as surprise, as excess even - as something right over-the-top.
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Immaculate too and similarly lush, are the sewn Swanndri bushshirts in Built (Soft Sound). Stuffed with softness and sound, this work hangs from the wall and spreads, or clambers, across the floor. These fabric extrusions look almost poured and globular - Guston-like in figuration. For this work is certainly haunted by the figure; interesting, given Reddaway's very successful work of the late 80's & early 90's where he applied various material skins ( broken crockery, records, shells) to the wooden framing of stacked or repeated stick-figures. In many ways then, 'Light, Sound: Built' sees Reddaway in a significant return to form!
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Light
wood and electrical components
2009, dimensions variable
Built (soft sound)
wool and audio components
2009, dimensions variable
Unresolved Music Part 1
wood, electronic components, soundtrack
2009, dimensions variable
