An exhibition by Auckland sculptor Derrick Cherrie is to open at the Fisher Gallery, Pakuranga, Manukau City from 23 April.
Notes for the House Officer consists of a series of sculptures that have been created specifically as an installation for the Fisher Gallery. As an early career contemporary New Zealand sculptor Derrick Cherrie has had his work recognised nationally and internationally in a number of exhibitions.
This exhibition will provide an introductory opportunity for the gallery to explore the work of more experimental artists. The artist states ‘This project will continue my interest in using furniture as a vehicle in carrying a complexity of associations which tend more towards the disturbing limits of our psyche than have been previously undertaken.
The installation will attempt to disorient expectations and assumptions about the normal. My concerns are how the implied change in usage conveyed by the familiar items in the works have the potential to unsettle ones perception of what is normal. I am interested in the apparent ease with which these disaffections are accepted.
I am interested in my own reactions to these dysfunctions. These works have moved beyond my concerns with solidification and consumerism. This installation begins to identify some of the physical minutiae that seem to me to be signs of confusion and repression. I am still posing questions about the relationship between the viewer and the artwork and therefore the viewer him/herself.’
Derrick Cherrie has worked as a full-time artist since he graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 1982. He is currently teaching design at Carrington Polytechnic, Auckland.