Kate Woods: Non-Site
24 April 2010 - 20 June 2010
The work of Wellington-based artist Kate Woods often incorporates landscapes from postcards and junk shop oil paintings as sites for impossible sculptural interventions. For the Te Tuhi Billboard series Woods has made a significant new large-scale development on this body of work.
Woods appropriates ubiquitous imagery; in this case she has specifically chosen alpine scenes of crystal clear lakes, snow-clad mountains and evergreen forests. Hovering throughout these vistas are ethereal faceted forms that float effortlessly in midair. On closer examination these triangular constructions also appear to contain views of other idyllic landscapes - functioning as a type of window into alternate worlds. To add further complexity to this poetic and alluring imagery, Woods plants clues in her titles that reference land artists of the 1960s and 1970s - in particular the temporal work of Dennis Oppenheim. In doing so, Woods questions not only the idealised representation of the natural environment but also the use of photography to mythologise ephemeral art.