Kerrie Poliness

In 2022, Kerrie Poliness’ work Black O (1997) was gifted to the Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s permanent collection. This is a conceptual artwork, existing as a set of detailed step-by-step instruction booklets for six abstract wall drawings, as well as a general manual that describes materials, tools, timeframes, technical notes, and other details required to install the work. The process is based on four important skills: the ability to understand the instructions, the ability to guess, and the ability to make accurate measurements and draw lines using a straight edge.

Hand drawn directly onto the wall with two different sizes of black poster markers, the drawings can be installed by single or multiple collaborators. They are scaled to specific sites, depending on their location in the Gallery. The size of the drawing is determined by the height of the assigned wall, with the radius of the circle being 35% of the overall wall height. In this installation, the Gallery’s technicians have created Drawing #5, Drawing #1 and Drawing #3 (from left to right). While the work exists as a set of instructions, these incorporate the interpretation and skills of those installing it. This, combined with the need for the work to be responsive and adapted to a particular site, means that each drawing is slightly different every time it is installed. When speaking about her intention of the work, Poliness has said ‘just as leaves on a tree are the same but slightly different, my drawing systems reflect systems of mass production found in nature and materiality’.

Poliness has been working with geometric abstraction since the mid-1980s, focusing on line, colour, and shape. She has been producing abstract rule-based drawings since 1989. These exist as wall drawings as well as field drawings, which use biodegradable paint on a lawn, paved or street surface. Through these repeated drawings, Poliness highlights the impacts of decision-making, implementation, and site-specificity – raising questions about the process and parameters of art making.