Mair Gallery, 10th August–4th September 2010

Auction: Thursday September 2, 6pm

Visions of Utopia marks the third occasion that COCA and Christchurch Cathedral have joined forces to present an art exhibition and fundraising event. The show features paintings, sculptures and photographs, both abstract and figurative, by a group of artists who would appear to be united only in their diversity. Nevertheless, the viewer is invited to consider these works as utopian - a term that, as Warren Feeney points out in his essay for the exhibition catalogue, is inherently paradoxical. 'Utopia', Feeney reminds us, is the title of Thomas More's famous book of 1516, which envisions an ideal society. However, the etymology of 'utopia' suggests More's intentions were satirical rather than idealistic. For 'utopia' is a neologism intentionally confusing Greek words for 'not' and 'good' with 'place'. In other words, a utopia is a 'good place' that is also 'no place' - by definition, an unrealizable ideal.

A 'utopian' artwork, then, might embrace satire as readily as idealism - and, in fact, the works chosen for Visions of Utopia do indeed appear to occupy positions ranging from the sceptical to the quixotic. Hence, David Woodings' glossy, hyperrealist painting of a Cadillac fun-ride in a shopping mall, 'Everybody's going somewhere just as fast as they can ride,' exposes the 'drive to consume,' presenting it as an ecstatic stasis; a journey that goes nowhere. Simon Edwards' charcoal drawing 'Subtopian Romance I' juxtaposes a leafless tree with a deserted road, creating an image of rapt contemplation, but one also tacitly equating perfection with the absence of life. Similarly, perfection construed as an elucidation of essence that flirts with nullity pervades the minimalist abstract paintings and sculptures of Kara Burrowes and Sarah Mortlock. The trouble with seeking the absolute is that one risks ending up with absolutely nothing. However, myriad incidents of surface colour and texture in Burrowes paintings, or the subtly inclined surfaces of Mortlock's constructions, speak of processes of becoming rather than ultimate endpoints in art. This is an ideal that encourages one to look for the utopian not in places or things, but rather in the striving for such. Sam Mahon's signature work for the show expresses this idea in figurative terms. A pyramid of straining adults lifts up a little girl so she can grasp the fruit of life. The many sacrifice, therefore, in order to ensure one of their number (the embodiment of their future, no less) approaches perfection. In this way, Mahon envisions a community one might well term utopian.

David Khan