Shane Cotton – Convertibles Essay by AD SCHIERNING
Searching for meaning and taking a journey of understanding, Convertibles is perhaps not just a reference to the white convertible car that drives top-down into the sunset. It speaks also to the conversion of spirituality. It is as though there is a painting within a painting here; at the edge of a painted field in the centre of the canvas, the artist has signed the work within. An alternate title Driving Away is dated 2001 and initialled by the artist. This proposes two different approaches to, or understandings of, a single idea. Shane Cotton (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Hine, Te Uri Taniwha, born 1964) is one of a group of highly successful painters that went through Ilam School of Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury. Included in this academic cluster are luminaries such as Bill Hammond, Tony de Lautour, Saskia Leek, Peter Robinson and Séraphine Pick. Cotton was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow in 1998—a year later, his contemporary Sèraphine Pick was the recipient. He received an Arts Foundation Laureate Award in 2008 and was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his contribution to visual arts in 2012. His work has a distinctly New Zealand commentary. Nevertheless, it has been well received on an international stage, with exhibitions held and awards won around the globe. Known for painted commentary that delves into the contentious territory of an idea of biculturalism, Cotton paints in a complex system of symbols. We are asked to read his paintings, each element heaped with potential translations depending on the individual understanding each viewer brings before the work. The artist has a strong visual language which has matured and evolved through his oeuvre, yet each work is easily identifiable as a work by Cotton. Convertibles (2002, Lot 28) is at a scale not uncommon for the artist, grand and immersive. The work is a key example of Cotton’s practice, holding all of the elements that the artist is well known for. As with many of Cotton’s works, we see a dark background on which the artist has composed each narrative element to balance the pictorial plane. To the upper left of the canvas the Lord’s Prayer is scribed delicately in white paint, in two different translations. Lower Webb's
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on the canvas is a te reo Māori translation of a verse from the Old Testament. Talking to colonialism and the difficulty of translating spirituality, this work seems to be pondering divinity. At the lower edge, again in te reo Māori, the artist professes the sad and poetic nature of his contemplation. He finishes with "kia marama", which translates into English as "let there be light". Searching for meaning and taking a journey of understanding, Convertibles is perhaps not just a reference to the white convertible car that drives top-down into the sunset. It speaks also to the conversion of spirituality. It is as though there is a painting within a painting here; at the edge of a painted field in the centre of the canvas, the artist has signed the work within. An alternate title Driving Away is dated 2001 and initialled by the artist. This proposes two different approaches to, or understandings, of a single idea. Across the canvas are bubbles of meaning, relatively small floating pods containing additional symbolism that adds to the complexities of our reading. A New Zealand robin sits in its bubble upon a floating branch; another small bird has escaped the confines of the painted enclosure. A red rose hovers within a speech bubble, a green prism floats, but perhaps most compelling is the encircled horse. The hōiho floats, captured in a restful position. The animal is titled with the heavy task of being the kupu (message) or perhaps holding the kupu. The first horse came to New Zealand with missionary Samuel Marsden and Ngāpuhi were recorded to be the first iwi to own horses. Horses quickly became an important commodity, traded and gifted with great significance. It is perhaps this link to Marsden that explains the hōiho as the bearer of the kupu. 76
