Wotton focuses on the spaces workers inhabit: the smoko and tea rooms, fish and chip shops and backstages. He gives mana to the in-between spaces Whanganui remains full of. He makes them monuments to the quirks of the human spirit.<\/p>\n
Even formal portraits of people in the exhibition give nobility to the common tattoo and head. His \u201cselective eye\u201d finds fineness in the people and buildings you pass daily on the street.<\/p>\n
Like Whanganui, photography does weird things with the flow of time. It recognises that the past lives with us. Wotton also has an eye for how much has changed or been altered. And in that lies another interest of this city \u2013 how its history remains but is changed.<\/p>\n
Wotton\u2019s photographs of interiors of the 80s and 90s are among my favourites. Places where objects stand in for people. Like in an old smoko room \u2013 it\u2019s a biscuit tin, a pack of cards and an iconic early 80s portrait of Charles and Di.<\/p>\n
Or take my favourite: the Black Cat Restaurant, 166 Victoria Ave. The interior Wotton documents is long gone. He photographed the Black Cat in 1992, yet it looks still caught in the 60s.<\/p>\n
As an image, this photograph is a fascinating tease or puzzle.<\/p>\n
In black and white, it almost resembles a folded collage of repeated objects: tables, chairs, condiments, disturbingly animated pot plants and, above each table, diamond-shaped mirrors and large numerals. All cast at different angles. Your eye wants it to be symmetrical, the lines folding in like origami, but everything is delightfully just off \u2013 with rogue elements like an empty baby\u2019s high chair providing human charge.<\/p>\n
Then you realise there are actual folds; it\u2019s a panorama composed of three images, leading to spooky spatial effects with perspective. I\u2019m reminded of the kooky nostalgic delight of the interiors in Wes Anderson films. Designing spaces for a camera like an architect.<\/p>\n
Wotton thinks of the image not as a flat plane but more like the camera\u2019s three-dimensional chamber \u2013 capturing the city\u2019s volumes and shapes in dynamic angles. And sometimes there\u2019s witty visual poetry in how different elements play off each other.<\/p>\n
In a 2011 image, a towering yet slender contemporary street lamp stands guard over the squat, closed-off mid-century facade of the former funeral directors\u2019 factory. Like a giant triffid, it curves its neck to survey us through its one big eye.<\/p>\n
“Former Funeral Director’s Factory, 6 Glasgow Street, Whanganui 2011” in Richard Wotton’s exhibition at Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery. Photo \/ Richard Wotton<\/p>\n
Wotton\u2019s attention to composition is stressed by an exhibition bay devoted to colour and abstract images. Up-close studies of objects, packaging tape and industrial surfaces show his interest in patterns. <\/p>\n
But most will be here for the local history and there are some great recent works, including of Fordell Hall, Ian Jackson\u2019s Transport Building, Ridgway St and \u2013 on a recurring fish-and-chip theme \u2013 Somme Parade Takeaways.<\/p>\n
Wotton was the Sarjeant Gallery\u2019s collection photographer for 31 years, retiring in 2018. Before then he was a compositor at Wanganui Newspapers (a job which, in its arrangement of visual elements, fits his photographic approach to a tee).<\/p>\n
Wotton\u2019s last photographic project was documenting the Sarjeant Gallery\u2019s restoration and reopening. This is quietly marked here. Yet rather than depict worker activity, Wotton lets the light hitting the empty gallery speak for a history past, present and future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wotton focuses on the spaces workers inhabit: the smoko and tea rooms, fish and chip shops and backstages.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[36671,1889,442,498,499,500,251179,251180,126505,501,11840,156,4296,1866,65804,8993,222028,24350,111,139,69,219360,5270,251178,6046,15160,67018,4477,3590,21083,251177],"class_list":["post-503444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-always","tag-architecture","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-cheekbyjowl","tag-colonial","tag-contemporary","tag-design","tag-diversity","tag-entertainment","tag-exhibition","tag-find","tag-happenings","tag-heritage","tag-illustrates","tag-modern","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-occasional","tag-one","tag-photographys","tag-potential","tag-richard","tag-sarjeant","tag-striking","tag-visitor","tag-whanganuis","tag-wotton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}