Viewers of Auckland artist Mary McIntyre’s exhibition of 100 drawings at the Fisher Gallery are invited to take part in changing the works. The Shades, which is on from Saturday the 19th of February to Sunday the 18th of March, is made up of 100 images on translucent paper, mounted back to back. The drawings are suspended, and as the light shines though them, the two drawings combine to make a new, changed image. Visitors to The Shades are invited to hold the works up to the light and discover the new image for themselves.
The Shades refers to the ancient Greek concept of the dead as shadowy beings inhabiting another underworld. Artist Mary McIntyre says that the exhibition ‘manifests my feelings about our western civilized culture and the residues of our ancient past, as well as the icons of my own mind, as ghosts.’ The installation has a shadowy and ethereal feeling to it, which is echoed in the translucent drawings themselves.
Mary McIntyre has been painting and drawing since the 1970s and is an established artist who exhibits regularly throughout New Zealand. The drawings in The Shades reflect her interest in the unlikely combination of realistically depicted images and subjects, and her wry sense of humour.
Ephemera
→ Mary McIntyre: The Shades, 2000, exhibition card