Kirsty Gregg
This Time It's Personal
February 9 - March 7
Kirsty Greggs work centres round the ever present realities of behavial
and social etiquette's and the controls we impose on ourselves as
a result of these. From bar room pick up lines ('Haven't I Seen
You Somewhere Before?', Jonathan Smart Gallery, 1996) to her more
recent obsession with how rugby wives can catch (and keep) that
elusive man, her work is informed by everyday situations where social
norms are taken to an extreme. In 'This time It's Personal' Gregg
tackles New Zealands favourite pastime with a playful investigation
of those larger than life idols the All Blacks. Fixed to the wall
like a series of swinging doors or a music stores' poster rack,
her slick black paintings with their neat fern insignia reference
classic minimalism a la the Gordon Walters koru series.
Further inspection reveals the backs of the paintings, with canvas
and timber exposed, where All Black signatures scrawled on the canvas
transform the paintings into a giant autograph book. Complete with
individual comments ranging from the coy ("to a special friend"
from Anton Oliver) to the just plain stoic ("Rugby was the winner
on the day" from Taine Randal), there is an air of 'notches on the
bedpost' about the display, a scoreboard of encounters with the
famed. Taking her cue from the media spaces where marketing, popular
culture and art collide, this new series of paintings continues
Greggs' investigation of the social battlefield that continues our
day-to-day existence. As the artist herself puts it: "It's war out
there".
Reviews, Essays & Articles
Smart, new, all in black
The Press, 1999 Feb. 17, p. 19
Ussher, Robyn.
This Time It's Personal, by Kirsty Gregg; Grunt Machine, videos.
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