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The Timaru Herald
December 15, 2003
Artist intends to excite or annoy
"One has a responsibility as an artist to jolt people a bit and excite
or annoy", according to local artist Mike Armstrong. Arts reporter
Joanna Harvey spoke to him recently.
Armstrong has fulfilled that responsibility with his latest exhibition
Cultural Discourse -- a diverse collection of works which blur the boundaries
between individual cultural identities, make blatant political statements and
visually and literally jump off the wall in a celebration of colour and form.
Of the 30 works, which include painted aluminium fabrications and acrylic on
canvas, most were created over the past year.
Armstrong, who is also the Art Programmes Co-ordinator at Aoraki Polytechnic,
says many of the exhibition's works deal with hybridisation and the cultural
blurring that has occurred between different cultures -- between the New
Zealand Pakeha and Maori in particular.
"Pakeha New Zealanders have developed unconscious Maori behaviours that
have crossed over between the two cultures.
"While people may write angry letters to newspapers I'm sure the country
is a lot more blended."
Armstrong's brightly painted fabrications for instance, the majority of which
have been spray painted and then 'tormented', use imagery where there is a
correspondence between the cultural forms.
The aluminium forms resemble and may or not be ampersands, a comma,
alien-like figures, Maori tiki and koru symbols.
Armstrong's exploration of hybrids also continue on into his paintings as
some of his paintings relate to sculpture with painted faces that appear to
have been cut out."
However while Armstrong may explore blurred boundaries he still believes in
the power of art to make blatant political statements.
Three acrylic on canvas paintings in particular, Dirty Dolly, Mummy, New
Nationalist Discourse and The Murder of Sensitivity, deal with Armstrong's
thoughts on the Peter Ellis trial, what happens to art in terms of politics
and the effect money has on human beings and art in the same context.
Armstrong says many of the images in Dirty Dolly, Mummy refer to Lynley
Hood's documentation of the Ellis trial in A City Possessed.
"It is to do with the scapegoat and the herd mentality that underlie the
situation."
While Armstrong enjoys working with other mediums painting is a discipline he
does not want to lose.
"I can still say things blatantly with paint and on these three canvases
I felt I wanted to say these three things.
While Cultural Discourse has provided Armstrong the opportunity to explore
some complex themes, he says a few pieces are simply a visual celebration of
colour and form.
The exhibition, which is on display in Aigantighe's main gallery, is also in many
ways a personal triumph for him.
"I have always been a bit scared of this space and its largeness. I look
at it now and I think that in a year despite working fulltime I was able to
produce enough work to fill it.
Cultural Discourse is on display at Aigantighe Art Gallery until February 29.
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