Nau mai, haere mai, welcome to EyeContact. You are invited to respond to reviews and contribute to discussion by registering to participate.

JH

David Cauchi Paintings

AA
View Discussion
David Cauchi, No Self Portrait, 2012, acrylic and ink on canvas, 35 x 30 cm David Cauchi, The Void, 2012, acrylic and ink on canvas, 35 x 30 cm David Cauchi, Life, 2012, acrylic and ink on canvas, 35 x 30 cm David Cauchi, The Psychiatrist, 2012, acrylic and ink on canvas, 35 x 30 cm David Cauchi, Spontaneous Search Party, 2012, acrylic and ink on canvas, 46 x 34 cm David Cauchi, The Minotaur, 2012, acrylic and ink on canvas, 35 x 30 cm

There is a nice quality about these enigmatic ‘tragic' images. Though lugubrious and slightly corny they get richer and more semiotically complex the more time you spend with them.

Auckland

 

David Cauchi
Abstractions

 

12 September - 29 September 2012

In this show of about a dozen small intimate paintings (figurative images in acrylic washes bordered with thin wobbly lines of black ink) David Cauchi presents a cartoonist sensibility, a self-effacing, black humour drawn on framed canvases in the style of Glen Baxter or Gahan Wilson.

The best of these images have a humorous self-mockery, mixed in with a heightened ambiguity. No Self Portrait has the artist’s head ‘negated’ with an imposed cross and the word ‘No’ written underneath. That could mean the image is one of any number of possibilities: a poor likeness, of somebody else, stands for self-hatred, of the artist (two negatives making a positive), or anti the ego or any representational imagery at all. ‘Abstract’ as Cauchi’s perhaps perverse exhibition title says.

The Void seems to be a seated Greek goddess holding an urn that has been removed or obliterated, turned into a dark hollow cavern. Is the absent object a symbol for culture? Is the gaping hole (in her chest) a symbol for redundant belief in deities, or if she is human, incinerated love?

And what of Life? A cut throat razor seems to have been fired through the open window on a bolt of lightning and sliced off the unfortunate gentleman’s head. Is such random violence part of Life, or is it more meaningful or determined by something the victim has done?

The blue-shirted man in The Psychiatrist is wearing a (glued on) mask that makes him look like a terrorist. He is not the conventional image of a drawn psychiatrist, being pudgy, beardless and snarling. With the blue shirt he could be a policeman.

Another figure guarding the doorway of Spontaneous Search Party also appears to be hostile, with his sneering expression, tilted head and aggressive v-shaped clawing fingers. The dark Void space behind him seems to be symbolic. If we search that house, what monstrous secrets would we find?

Cauchi’s fablelike paintings invite speculation, and are seemingly preoccupied with the Self and its hidden nature. The Minotaur is usually guarding mazes and virilely active, but in one of Cauchi’s paintings he is in his artist’s attic, pathetically sprawled on the floor, forlornly sucking on a bottle. His girlfriend has left him, her separate bed festooned with drying underwear and socks.

There is a nice quality about these enigmatic ‘tragic’ images. Though lugubrious and slightly corny they get richer and more semiotically complex the more time you spend with them. They are not one-liners.

John Hurrell

Print | Facebook | Twitter | Email

 

This Discussion has 2 comments.

Comment

Erin Driessen, 3:15 p.m. 28 September, 2012

These are great.
The figure in The Void could be a representation of the Virgin Mary, what with her blue drapery and the fallen halo that now hangs around her neck. I like Jesus as a black hole...

Reply to this thread

John Hurrell, 3:45 p.m. 28 September, 2012

Yeah, Erin, you're dead right. I missed the point of that 'Mary' one entirely. Was way off.

Reply to this thread

Recent Posts by John Hurrell

JH
Jae Hoon Lee, Mother and Child, 2024, inkjet on smooth pearl. 1500 x 1500 mm

Looking Through (or At) Jae Hoon Lee

IVAN ANTHONY GALLERY

Auckland

 

Jae Hoon Lee
Internal Landscape Part II


16 March 2024 -13 April 2024

JH
Outside installation of part of Shiraz Sadikeen's The Natural Rate, at Treadler. Photo: Alex North.

Sadikeen @ Treadler

TREADLER

Auckland


Shiraz Sadikeen
The Natural Rate


8 March 2024 - 23 March 2024

 

JH
Still from Marcus Coates, The Directors: Lucy (2022) Single channel HD video on loop, projection, 21 min, 24 sec--⁠presented at Yellow Brick Road, courtesy of Artangel.

Attempting to Describe the Experience of Psychosis

Te Tuhi /Auckland Arts Festival

5 inner city sites


Marcus Coates
The Directors


24 February - 24 March 2024

JH
Ava Seymour, Manhole, 2023, Maribu solvent screen-printing ink on aluminium, 1120 x 910 mm, unique.

Maternal Appurtenances

COASTAL SIGNS

Auckland

 

Ava Seymour
Heels of Mothers


14 March - 13 April 2024