21 January - 18 March

My love of the landscape and social history of North Otago and especially the Duntroon/Tokarahi area keeps me living here after nearly seventy years.
All of this time I have had a fatal fascination for artefacts, particularly those with agricultural and local associations, resulting in an extensive collection chosen not only for beauty and interest but also for the lifestyle they epitomise and the stories they tell.
I have been inspired to do these paintings to “give a voice” to some of these items.
I enjoy the curious twist I am able to create celebrating something which in its time required damned hard work and was anything but glamorous.
I have taken the liberty of displaying, in tandem with the paintings some of the artefacts which inspired them.
I invite you to finish each story and add your own.

Burns Pollock

Watercolour paintings by
Burns Pollock©

Above: Marg's Stool, 2011
Far left: Long Day, 2011
Left: Icebreaker , 2011
Right: McKenzies Point, 2011

Watercolour paintings by Burns Pollock ©

Above: Chappies Spud Fork, 2011
Right: Bill Cogger's Barber Chair, 2011.

Painting, Isolation
and Tradition

Peter Cleverley. God Box Dog Box, 2010. Acrylic on canvas

In the basement gallery from 28 January for five weeks (until 4 March)

a collection of artworks, texts, poetry and moving images including three interpretive exhibitions running concurrently in the Community Gallery ...

... continues until 6 May

Developed and curated by Noelline Edwards, December 2011

4 February-4 March: The Oamaru Public Garden: The making of a garden (link) - an exhibition curated by Rob Douglas.
7 April-6 May: TOHU: Recognition of Rare Value by film maker Bronwyn Judge. (link)
A documentary that recognises the ancient culture of the Waitaki River and endangered birds of Waitaha.

Gardens move people in different ways according to where, when and how they have lived their lives, their collective memories and cultural experiences. We are all caught up in some way with what has gone before.

It is a space which gathers around itself a history to which assumptions cling. To some extent assumptions from historical precedents determined from antiquity influence us, but more importantly we are influenced by our own history and by moving around in other peoples’ culture and beliefs.

To the modern mind the idea of gardens as conveyors of meaning is an unfamiliar one.
Yet a garden can convey meaning in a similar way that a building can. Like a good poem, a garden contains many levels of meaning and draws a different response from every individual.
Depending on the time and place of its making, a garden makes a statement about the world as its creator perceived it. In other words, a garden can be a metaphor used to convey a world view, a mood, a thought or an ideal.

What makes gardens such potentially powerful metaphors is the way in which they bring nature and art together. This combination allows for enormous variations in emphasis, depending on how nature is viewed in particular cultures. For those that live inseparably from nature, for example some indigenous cultures, the concept of a garden can have no meaning since a garden is by definition something that is set apart. For some cultures though, such as those of ancient China and Japan, a garden is a refinement of nature. The modern city dweller on the other hand, is likely to see gardens as places where a lost natural beauty is recreated.

On a more personal level, only you know the meaning of your garden

This exhibition contains ...
• An anthology of gardens through the ages, from antiquity to the present time, that explores the historical meaning of gardens with contemporary significance for us today.
• Featured works from the permanent collections of the Forrester Gallery and paintings borrowed from public and private collections.

• A number of selected works in the northern part of the gallery that serve as a reminder of our place in the landscape, and ask us, as we share our places with the plants, birds and animals who live with us in our environment ~

. . . whose garden is it anyway?

Two of the outstanding images to be on display during the exhibition.

Left: William Cumming (1933-2002), Garden, 1976.
Acrylic on canvas 45.0 x 45.0 cm. Private Collection.

Above: Mabel Hill (1872-1956), Reed Street, Oamaru, 1915.
Watercolour. 30.0 x 52.0 cm. Private Collection

Unknown artist. Eagle. Wheatstraw picture of an eagle on a tree branch. (Collage ). Collection of the Forrester Gallery. Gifted by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China.

Above: Unknown artist. Celestial Beings Spreading Flowers to the Earth. Cattle horn and plastic on paibnted card.
Gifted by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China.

Right: Royal Doulton. Pot pouri jar / Sung Flambé Glaze / Charles Noke design (c1920--c1940). Decorated by Arthur Eatonr. Glazed ceramic and wood. Collection of the Forrester Gallery.

Left: Peter Cleverley. Untitled (four women with street scene), 1986.
Acrylic on paper. Collection of the Forrester Gallery.

Above: Peter Gregory. Ancient Eden, 1992. Egg tempera on gesso prepared hardboard. Collection of the Forrester Gallery

Above right: June Tyson. Time Out, 1986. Watercolour on paper.
Collection of the Forrester Gallery

Hadyn Wills. The Old Brass Tap (British Wren), 1984. Acrylic on board. Collection of the Forrester Gallery

The Oamaru Public Gardens - the making of a garden
4 February - 4 March

NOM718: " Craig Fountain, Oamaru Gardens". "By the will of the late Mr James Craig a sum of L500 was bequeathed for the purposes of erecting a fountain; the Council supplied the funds for providing a large basin, and the fountain was officially set in action on April 13 [1914] on the occasion of a great Floral Fete". (Ref: McDonald, 1940: 197) Drinking fountains later relocated.

NOM5422: Red Bridge, Public Gardens Oamaru NZ. Postcard, PPL Hastings, JT A1, Colour original