Chaos and order

Mike Deavoll, Derelict Coastal Sign — Meaning Uncertain No 3, 2014.

This month, the Aigantighe Art Gallery is pleased to present to visitors recent works from South Canterbury artist, Michael Deavoll.

He graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Diploma of Fine Arts in 1979. He majored in sculpture, and studied under renowned Christchurchbased artists, Ria Bancroft and Tom Taylor.

Partly driven by the prohibitive costs of oil paints and art materials, Deavoll started using the detritus of his studio – the discarded wood, acrylic scraps, mosaic fragments, and pieces of broken paintings – to build his artworks and to reference his sculptural training.

Around this time he was also gifted a box of bike spokes that allowed him to add vital linear elements to his assemblages. This exhibition, entitled Risen, references this rebirth of discarded materials – materials that rise from the ashes, are reworked, assembled and arranged to create something new.

Derelict Coastal Sign—Meaning Uncertain No 3 is a prime example of how Deavoll explores the tension between chaos and order. This theme is also present in the contrast between the uncontrollable force that is the ocean and the signpost edifice.

This artwork might be read as representing the human attempt to control and organise nature within a system of language and symbols —this being an arbitrary endeavour, and ultimately temporary where nature is enduring.

Despite the complex ideas at the heart of Deavoll’s artworks, foremost, they are visually mesmerising and confirm him to be a local artist of international calibre.

Derelict Coastal Sign – Meaning Uncertain No. 3 is on exhibition in Aigantighe’s Main Gallery as part of Michael Deavoll’s solo-show Risen until March 10. This weekend is the last chance to see South Canterbury Museum’s World War I exhibition Enduring the Inferno. It tells local experiences among the broader story of the global conflict.

While the beginning of the war was welcomed with a patriotic fervour, after four years of fighting there was great relief at its end.

At war’s end there remained the huge task of integrating New Zealand’s soldiers back into the community. There were 56,000 Kiwis serving overseas and bringing them home was a challenging and slow project.

Government departments helped soldiers train and find employment, and disabled soldiers were taught skills to make products sold in special stores.

A new scheme set up soldiers on farms, including many in South Canterbury.