Aptly titled "Maze", this elegant, deceptively modest painting consists of multiple symbols and motifs that float, surreal, on a black background. At first, the work appears to be an indecipherable maze of symbols, but on closer inspection reveals and encyclopedia or road-map of Lautour's pictorial language.
The artist has combined symbols from a variety of sources to create an artwork that generates multiple layers of meanings, as well as captures competing ideas that hover within darkness. These include crosses, the letter x, clouds and lighting, mountain ranges and smoking volcanoes, a cobweb bearing the inscription "new day" at its extremities, and a lion with a cross, amongst others.
Because the symbols in Maze are not ordered, with no definitive viewing perspective provided, the work demands the viewer's active involvement in teasing out its readings. The work can be viewed as a diagram - an insight to- the artist's mind. Ideas float around, jostling for attention, captured here in a moment of time, for all time. The network of lines, circles, letters and dots function like a map waiting to be read and deciphered, as well as referencing early computer games and blackboard diagrams.
A political element is often present in de Lautour's practice. Here, there imperial lion speaks of colonialism, with the crucifix in his paw, while the neatly segmented mountains blocks of two, three of four, illustrate the commoditisation of the land. The lightening bolts might somewhat humorously reference the artist's own punk rocker leanings, or perhaps, the wrath of God.
Maze is a significant work that connects broad aspects of de Lautour's practic. Tony de Lautour is an artist whose work is represented in the collections of Auckland Art Gallery; Govett-Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth; Museum of New Zealand Te Pape Tongarewa, Wellington; National Library of New Zealand, Wellington; Christchurch Art Gallery; Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui, and the University of Canterbury.
Buying Committee - Karina, Glen, Kate
Purchased in July 2010
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