FOREWORD to the ten years after catalogue
by Katy corner, august 2008
During his decade in New Zealand, Anthony Davies has accumulated not so much a following, as an intellectual entourage. His work also has the power to provoke visceral reactions in viewers, and it is this mind/body interplay which makes his work so compelling. Those with whom he comes into contact do not forget their encounters with this alien in their midst.
Davies' own nature is contradictory: he is a sociable character who has chosen to dwell in the frequently isolated world of print-making. People inspire him, and he is propelled forward by an endless curiosity about other human beings. He picks his way through the information immediately around him and finds links to the larger issues. By representing New Zealand stories and the way they intersect and overlap, he connects this small country to the outside world, for better and worse.
Davies has always valued the literary world and words add a heightened form of reality to his real-world observations. When I first met him, he was absorbed with Iris Murdoch's psychological novels. Ian McEwan's Saturday followed and, most recently, Lloyd Jones' Mister Pip has set him thinking.
An important part of Davies' working process has been to invite writers to respond to his work. Among them are Dr Elizabeth Rankin and Dr Edward Hanflling, whose resent essays are presented here and here. (Links will be updated later).
Elizabeth Rankin has a rich store of experience relating to art history and, more specifically, technical knowledge of - and a delight in - print-making. Edward Handfling is an astute analyst and observer of New Zealand art with a particular passion for the New Zealand landscape tradition.
My own writing association with Davies began in 2003 with Twin Towers, Wanganui. In this essay, I have used formal interviews together with more casual discussion to enable Davies, the person, to be glimpsed.
In considering text as well as images, we receive an impression of being engulfed by ideas and motifs which relate to, and expand upon, our own reactions to a chaotic world.
Davies' own nature is contradictory: he is a sociable character who has chosen to dwell in the frequently isolated world of print-making. People inspire him, and he is propelled forward by an endless curiosity about other human beings. He picks his way through the information immediately around him and finds links to the larger issues. By representing New Zealand stories and the way they intersect and overlap, he connects this small country to the outside world, for better and worse.
Davies has always valued the literary world and words add a heightened form of reality to his real-world observations. When I first met him, he was absorbed with Iris Murdoch's psychological novels. Ian McEwan's Saturday followed and, most recently, Lloyd Jones' Mister Pip has set him thinking.
An important part of Davies' working process has been to invite writers to respond to his work. Among them are Dr Elizabeth Rankin and Dr Edward Hanflling, whose resent essays are presented here and here. (Links will be updated later).
Elizabeth Rankin has a rich store of experience relating to art history and, more specifically, technical knowledge of - and a delight in - print-making. Edward Handfling is an astute analyst and observer of New Zealand art with a particular passion for the New Zealand landscape tradition.
My own writing association with Davies began in 2003 with Twin Towers, Wanganui. In this essay, I have used formal interviews together with more casual discussion to enable Davies, the person, to be glimpsed.
In considering text as well as images, we receive an impression of being engulfed by ideas and motifs which relate to, and expand upon, our own reactions to a chaotic world.
