James Voller - 'Moving House'
Front Gallery, 9th March–4th April 2010
Stemming from an interest in New Zealand's social history, the work aims to reference and re- examine shifts in regards to what is perceived to be the homogenous expectations of New Zealanders: the ‘quarter acre dream”. Working with images of generic New Zealand housing, the works utilise photography and photographic superimposition to shift the appearance and perception of selected urban and industrial sites. Large scale photographic imagery is inserted into actual sites in order to question what does actually exist. Consideration will be given to the site and the verisimilitude of the superimposition to generate a simultaneity between the illusionist pictorial space of the chosen images and the actual site itself. A sense of displacement is generated by locating images in overlooked and non suburban sites, in order to reflect on the changes and rifts occurring around the issues of housing, housing affordability and how and where New Zealanders live.
The photographs reveal the perceptual shifts created by the site specific installations, as well as furthering the illusionist qualities of the interventions themselves. Qualities of light, colour and composition can slow down the revelation of the content of the images. Further, the combination of site with formal components of composition work together to generate multiple readings from 'wasteland' and 'dereliction' to 'beauty'. These devices are employed to manifest considerations around illusion, desire and actuality.