Russell Moses Goldfield 2004 Gold leaf & ink on steel. Collection of the artist
Russell Moses Headland 1996. Clay, shade cloth and ply. Collection of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. Purchased with funds from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Society for the 1998 Commemorative Collection.
Russell Moses Oturehua Southern Cross I 1999. Pruning paint on paper and clay beads. Collection of the artist
Russell Moses Whareakeake III 2006. Acrylic on steel. Collection of the artist
Russell Moses Garden of Light 2001. Pruning paint, acrylic and ink on hardboard. Collection of Hamish Morrison
Russell Moses Green Cross 2007. Acrylic on steel. Private Collection, Auckland
Russell Moses From Higher Ground, Bannockburn 2004. Graphite & ink on steel. Collection of the artist
Russell Moses Matauri Bay Site Pacific IV 2002. Pruning paint and ink on MDF. Collection of Tony Farrell and Donna Osborn Family Trust
Russell Moses Matauri Bay V 2002. Pruning paint and ink on MDF. Private Collection, Auckland
Russell Moses Whareakeake VII 2006. Acrylic on steel Collection of the artist
Russell Moses Behold the Moon 2008. Acrylic and polyurethane on board. Collection of the artist
Russell Moses
Garden of Light
23 August 2008 - 16 November 2008
Russell Moses has a special notion of landscape. It is not landscape in the sense of being view or vista, but the evocation, memory and record of a particular place. The artist is deeply interested in history and dedicated to mimicking the organic processes at play in nature. His are the patterns visible in the surface of the earth. Moses engages in a repetitive process of deconstruction and construction, finding a detail, cropping it and reconfiguring it to produce works and series that grow out of each other over time.
Such an approach involves an intuitive yet ordered working process. His landscape of memory makes itself known in dot, disc, pendant, patterned panel and French curve, symbols of a personal relationship with a particular place repeatedly collected and arranged. This is landscape made new, reduced yet intensified in symbol and pattern, light and dark.
Moses relies on a geometric overlay to focus and order what he sees. He uses the cross, often made up of dots, as an armature for many of his works, and a way of marking a site. And his symbols are often arranged in patterns to create different geometric shapes. Each work follows its own system and seeks its own sense of perfection. At the same time, works flow from one to another, an endless opening and closing of forms and relationships.
Garden of Lightis a celebration of Moses’ dedication to a natural order and the unashamed pleasure he takes in capturing the visceral experience of the land and its cycle.
View the exhibition labels – click here