JOHN DALY-PEOPLESWEEKEND REVIEW FRIDAY JUNE 24, 2016
Yugen
Kathy Barber
Orexart, Arch Hill, Auckland
Until July 16
The artist says the term Yugen is a Japanese principle implying that beauty exists when it is suggested – a few words, a few strokes bringing to mind that which has not or cannot be said.
In traditional Japanese art and literature, it is a means of expressing the mysterious sense of aesthetics and the ambivalent beauty of Nature and the human condition
In some ways these almost calligraphic works have a sense of capturing an idea as do traditional haiku, encapsulating complex notions and ideas
Many of her works are like the work of Max Gimblett who produces large deft strokes of calligraphy, grand gestures often laid over coloured or metallic grounds.
Barber’s work, however, is more considered with carefully applied strokes, somewhere between the painter’s brush mark and the calligrapher's line.
Some of the small works in the show such as Soro ($1900) of a single calligraphic stroke and Rain Chain ($1900) of a double stroke are attempts at creating the harmonious balance, which is then expanded in the larger works.
Most of these larger works are abstract calligraphic works, such as “Rain Chain and Blessing” ($5900) with elegantly shaped swirls. Others such as Omikuji ($5900) have a more mysterious appearance shrouded in haze while in Naoshima Pier ($5900) the calligraphic shapes are so minimal they almost disappear
Works such as Aiiro ($5900), have a real sense of landscape with a distant horizon line as well as what could be read as reeds. These natural forms convey an almost realist scene, so that abstraction and realism intersect.