Exhibitions

Auckland

Benjamin Work

Whenua Fonua ‘Enua

Malcolm Smith Gallery 6 November–2 December IOANA GORDON-SMITH When I think of Benjamin Work’s practice, the richness of Tongan visual language comes to mind. The artist has derived from artefacts a rich taxonomy of patterns that offer both aesthetic and mnemonic potential. Whenua Fonua ‘Enua at Malcolm Smith Gallery offers an interesting spin on his practice. The solo exhibition takes place in the artist’s hometown—or close enough to, having been raised in Pakuranga. It is unsurprising then that place is a central focus. More interesting is the subsequent layering of local and migrated relationships to place. It is a heady dynamic, foreshadowed in the trilingual exhibition title.

The exhibition centres around how place is indexed by different visual codes. There is a good range to consider: a wall painting, a pair of diamond-oriented paintings, a series of five canvases featuring text, and a publication with photographs by Brendan Kitto (who also grew up in East Auckland). The wall painting harks back to Tongan ‘akau ta (war clubs) and their distinctive pattern work. Because this artist first encountered these as vectorised illustrations, the forms have a minimalism that supports a graphic approach as well as symmetry. Here, Work’s now iconic use of the warrior figure is mirrored thrice, fanning out from the centre. Beneath the painting lies a mound of rocks, sourced from Ngai Tai lands.

The large works on canvas show a similar extrapolation of (design). Presented in a diamond orientation, each painting is dissected into fields of colour, either