View the exhibition Viewing Room HERE
These new works are all imagined environments. I term them as ‘imaginary vistas fuelled by everyday lived experiences’. The artwork is nowhere and everywhere, and I hope viewers see a place in this work that resonates with them in the same way that it does for me.
Over the past year I have been exploring different mediums to achieve a level of looseness and degradation that reminds me of historical geographical images. Early New Zealand photos were often of low quality, and many have been poorly stored. It is fair to say that being surrounded by family history again has played a part in influencing my current work.
The subjects are reflective of my new environment in New Zealand. I'm living in Waikanae, a suburb on the Kapiti Coast. While I'm not living on the beach with views of the ocean, I am living in an environment where the conditions change as quickly as the weather does. This provides me with a never-ending influence for texture, colour and light. The recurring landform motifs in a lot of these works is loosely based on various coastal views typical in this part of the country.
These works are multi-layered acrylic on paper. Each piece varies in the number of layers it has, but some have up to 30 layers to create the desired depth and effect.
- Hamish Macaulay, 2023
