Recreation

Auckland artist Paula Collier works directly with sites, often utilizing derelict commercial or public spaces, letting connections between the materials and the site drive the context and content of the final piece. Building up layers from sheets of commercial glass, Paula leaves the material in its raw state, playing off the imperfections of the industrial substance against the highly asetheticized, and beautifully rendered placement of the work.

For The Physics Room Paula has extended the swinging wall which partially divides two gallery spaces, building a glass and wax extension which is defined by, and reliant on, the architectural structure of the gallery space. The new wall appears solid, yet temporary, redirecting for the duration of the show the flow of the audience through the gallery space.

Appearing as though balanced only by the weight of the material, and compressed between two walls, Recreation is both beautiful and terrifying in its dance with gravity.

Reviews, Essays & Articles
Fresh - A series profiling Contemporary New Zealand Practitioners
The Physics Room Annual, 2001
Devenish, Lee 

Strutting their stuff
The Press, 2001 Aug. 29, p. 34
Peers, Robyn.
Recreation by Paula Collier; Risky Business by Dane Mitchell; A Good Tradition Well Maintained by Marcus Moore.

Young & Contemporary
The Package, September, 2001
Devinish, Lee