Plot by Kathryn Stevens

  • 9 August 2014

Plot, a wall-length hanging, is a new departure in the work of Kathryn Stevens.

Plot, a wall-length hanging, is a new departure in the work of Kathryn Stevens.

Lines have always been very much part of the work of Kathryn Stevens at Whitespace Gallery. In her paintings, areas of harmonious colour were energised by interesting lines that were a highly individual weaving through the space of the painting.

This show includes two large and sensitive paintings in this established manner and a group of more than a dozen similar smaller works in the same style but with an attractive addition. They have plain colour on the back and hang just clear of the wall so the lighting bounces the colour from the back and makes a luminous surround that is different in each work. It quietly gives poise and an extra presence.

Nevertheless, the innovative piece that dominates the show, taking up a whole wall, takes the lines into sculpture in a flat plane with cast shadows.

The work is a graceful re-entrant curve made with the sharp red of taut builder's line strung like a huge harp or an abstraction of a loom.

The lines are kept absolutely vertical by a plumbob on the end of each one. The whole is carefully made with almost impossibly neat knotting to hold the weights. Where the curve doubles back the spacing narrows and adds a variant to the bold simplicity. It makes for an engaging work.

By T.J. McNamara Saturday Aug 9, 2014 NZ Herald

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