WHAT
Mathew Squire ‘Peculiar Reality’
Sian Torrington ‘Words to explain Everything’
Meta Assink ‘Face Change’
WHEN
15th November – 1st December
Opening Thursday 15th November at 5.30pm
WHERE
ROAR! gallery, 55 Abel Smith St, above Real Groovy, Wellington
Mathew Squire ‘Peculiar Reality’
Mathew Squire is an artist who has been both made and born. One of nine brothers and sisters, he has had two lives
within the same body; one as a head teacher at TEFL, had travelled extensively through Asia and Tibet and speaker of
five languages. His second life, in which he discovered his remarkable talent as an artist, began when he had an
accident in which he fell four and a half metres through a sky light, suffering severe head injuries.
After two and a half weeks of unconsciousness, he came to in the hospital speaking Chinese. The part of the brain
affected was the memory side, so Squire is unable to learn new information or skills.
However while recovering in hospital; Squire made his first tapestry, a depiction of a country scene with his now
typical imaginary elements. We can only assume that his art making talents lay dormant somewhere within him before the
accident.
Squire makes work which depicts his unique vision of the world. The works are often based in reality such as landscapes
or city scenes, but with added imaginative and peculiar elements. Buildings morph into faces, created animals walk in
farmyard scenes. A prolific and seemingly endlessly imaginative and creative artist, he carves frames, makes tapestries,
and began to paint when he joined Pablos Art Studio. The world which Squire creates crossing mediums, making tapestries
which recreate the images made in his paintings. Recently he reworked some half finished tapestries which were partially
completed and donated to him. In these we can see how the two worlds collide; that of the traditional art of making
tapestries of country scenes, vases of flowers and animals, and then Mathew’ s version, placing a kiwi necklace around a
tiger’s neck, and adding fantastical animals to the farmyard. Mathew Squire is a truly original and inspiring artist,
with a story to match.
Sian Torrington ‘Words to Explain Everything’
Sian Torrington has been described as a magpie. Previously a fashion designer, she retains her love of collecting all
things which glitter, be they fabrics, buttons and beads. Her role as manager of ROAR! gallery has introduced her to
artists who have donated parts of their unused stores of materials, and in this show, she uses her skills as an arranger
and collage maker to recreate cast offs from ordinary life to create extraordinary pieces of art;
‘I use recycled and found materials in my work partly because I am aware that art can be one of the contributors to
simply making more ‘stuff’ in the world when there seems to be enough already. If a piece is not working then I keep it
and it will be cut up and remade for a later piece.
I am interested in the formal aspects of assemblage and collage; how to create a pictorial and imaginative space which
the audience is able to enter. I have made large scale environments and in this show have created small scale versions.
My works are part reality, part imagination and part humour. I work on the assumption that enough is never enough.
The title of the show refers to the idea that titles are supposed to explain works. While making this show I also began
to write, and my process was similar to the visual work; writing fragments and sticking them on the wall and then moving
them around to create a collage of words. I see collage and assemblage as reflecting the way we live in contemporary
society, with a thousand images coming at us. For me it also encourages the viewer to slow down and really look at the
pieces, taking time to delight in the discovery of each new element.’
Meta Assink ‘Face Change’
In this show, Meta Assink explores different ways of seeing the same thing; the human female face and ideas about
beauty. She has used image from magazines as her models for portraits, which attracted her for their subject matter as
well as their close and shallow picture plane.
‘I have always been interested in ideas and concepts of beauty. I am interested in the ‘sameness’ of conceptions of
beauty, especially in regards to fashion models.’
In this show she combines this interest with her visual explorations of perception;
‘I am interested in how the eye works, how things can be seen. I am particularly interested in how my glasses frame what
I see. My perception is always influenced by the perimeter of my glasses. These latest works investigate the frames of
the glasses and the edges of vision………..thing sin the centre of my visual field and in focus often appear as contrast or
blocks of colours. What the eye sees in focus is very narrow but the mind fills in the gaps.
ENDS