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ABOUT IAN M CLOTHIER

email: i.clothier@witt.ac.nz
urls: http://ianclothier.orcon.net.nz mirror http://www.art-themagazine.com/ian/ : : http://www.art-themagazine.com

COMMENTARY

[hybrid culture, nonlinearity and creative practice] - thesis examiner comments

"The Thesis presented two components… The first component comprised a multi media exhibition including a data bank of projected images, an interactive touch based digital image and text composition (as a web-site), a series of digital prints and artworks and two three dimensional components, which in their totality created an exhibition installation.

Secondly a written thesis articulated a number of contextual frameworks for the visual work, examining theoretical constructs, including post structuralist, chaos and cultural theory along with historical perspectives and personal narrative.

… Thus, Ian's determination to have the artwork reflect both Polynesian and Western cultures and to accept that these two contradictory elements could be dovetailed, has been very successfully achieved…

The idea of the components "talking" to each other by 'chance' is an idea with which Ian has engaged and which is very successfully realised, both visually and conceptually…the works that include text are particularly striking… The ideas too are original and new and yet fully resolved… The work is both thoughtful and meaningful; both serious and good humoured."

"the merge of nonlinearity and hybrid cultural understanding and the influence this has on creative practice has been achieved in a way which I found completely engaging… the technical side of Ian Clothier's exhibition of creative production appeared to be executed with precision, artistic imagination and flair."

painting

"… there is in his work the prospect that art continues to generate innovation and mystery and for this there is relevance." Alison Pearson The Press Christchurch NZ.

"Clothier represents different cultural conceptions of chaos and curved space, the most investigative being circular images whose boundaries were increasingly more complex while their centres were emptied of content... the best have a charm that is colouristic and contemplative." Bridie Lonie ArtNZ.

"… he seeks to make personal sense of the world's universal forces and life's cycles of random complexity through visual symbols… these works have a quality of directness and charm…" Pat Unger, The Press.

theoretical work

"Clothier makes some interesting points here… his remarks on chaos theory are really fascinating… thanks for the stimulation." Professor Denis Dutton University of Canterbury.

poetry

"You have a sharp analytic intellect with regard to words, their meaning and use." Hone Tuwhare.

currently

Tutor, Research and Digital Media, Dept of Art and Media, Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki, New Zealand

solo exhibitions, film/video

2003 hybrid culture.nonlinearity/rupture MCA, New Plymouth New Zealand (NZ)

2002 hc : n : cp (hybrid culture, nonlinearity and creative practice), projected image database, lei related objects, digital prints and website, MA submission Auckland University of Technology

2002 roll over me sun, roll over me rain interactive digital poetry, published on www.solarcircuit.org

2001 aroha weetie, digital prints, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Technology Park (extra to study) NZ

1999 what order is this chaos, paintings and mixed media, The Depot Arts Space, Devonport NZ

1999 what chaos is this order, paintings, Executive Programmes, The University of Auckland NZ

1998 branch on branch, 35mm animation with nonlinear edit, broadcast radical ad (achieved prime time), TV3/4 NZ

1994 Earth Inversions, paintings, Aero Club Gallery Port Chalmers Dunedin NZ

1994 Days and Nights on Earth, paintings, Salamander Gallery Christchurch NZ

1993 Celebrating Diversity, paintings, Manhattan Gallery Christchurch

1992 Beyond the Dancing Electrons, paintings, The Gallery Akaroa NZ

1991 Dance of the Electrons, paintings, The Gallery Akaroa

1987 Akaroa/Tokyo, prints and drawings, Limited Edition Gallery Banks Peninsula NZ

1986 Air, paintings and mixed media, James Paul Gallery Christchurch

1985 Interiors and Spirit of the Trees, paintings and drawings, The Gallery Akaroa

group exhibitions, screenings

2003 Digital Stories, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth

2003 Nga Waka Auckland College of Education

2002 www.solarcircuit.org collaborative art work

2002 www.wild2002.com web work and poem

2002 Wild 2002 Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

2002 Invited participant, Solar Circuit International New Media Residency and Workshop Australia

2000 Artex NZ Expo Centre, Auckland

2000 Summer Hanging Chiaroscuro Gallery, Auckland

1999 Akaroa 7 The Gallery Akaroa

1999 Linton works The Gallery Akaroa

1993 The Cubbies Show ROAR Studios, Melbourne Australia

1992 Three Artists Salamander Gallery, Christchurch

1986 Temporary Beginnings Manawa Gallery, Christchurch

1985 ANZART '85 Artists' Book Show Auckland City Art Gallery

1981 ANZART performance art work participant, Christchurch Arts Centre

publications, papers, conferences

2004 Review of Bloom: mutation, toxicity and the sublime http://rhizome.org/thread.rhiz?thread=12159&text=23400

2004 Review of Come In: interior design as a contemporary art medium in Germany
www.art-themagazine.com/pages/featur32.htm

2003 Exploring multiplicity in a hybrid, nonlinear context Spark3, Wintech Hamilton NZ

2003 Len Lye and old brain imagery, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Museum

2003 Paper, Hybrid cultures in Asia and Polynesia : what, where and how about us? Nga Waka, Aotearoa NZ Association of Art Educators Conference

2003 Paper, Nonlinearity in technology and art: one multiplicity, Nga Waka, Aotearoa NZ Association of Art Educators Conference

2001 Paper, Towards a nonlinear model of self, Culture informs learning, NZ Association of Research in Education Conference

2001 Paper, Beyond the arts: advancement by external resourcing, Breakthroughs 2001, Ninth International Conference on Thinking

2001 Paper, From chaos and cosmology: a new space for the visual arts, published in Digital Creativity, UK/Sweden academic journal

2001www.art-themagazine.com, editor & web author

2001http://akaroa.kiwi.id.tripod.com/contents.htm kiwiana exhibition online catalogue (web author)

2000 Paper, Curved picture space: a new space for the arts Global Arts Beyond 2000, International Council of the Federation of Arts Deans Conference

2000 http://ianclothier.tripod.com/home/, personal website (web author)

1997 Paper, Three steps to the world, Virtual Technologies in Tertiary Education, Auckland University Staff Union National Conference NZ

1997 www.gen.com/bigjude/POETS/onetangi.html (Waiheke Island) poems published

1997 Bean Rock to Starboard Waiheke Writers Collective Press, poem selected

1997 Takahe Magazine poetry published NZ

1994, 1995 Strata BP Writers Collective Press Akaroa, poetry published

1983 Art critic, La Trobe Valley Express newspaper, Gippsland Australia

1981 Art critic, Spin Off magazine, Christchurch NZ

Exploring ideas of curved space [article by Charmian Smith from the Otago Daily Times]

Ian Clothier is a painter and philosopher who explores the concept of curved space in his painting. With a fellow artist at from Akaroa, craft jeweller Peter McKay, he is exhibiting at the Aero Club Gallery.

The idea of trying to paint curved space was sparked when he saw an exhibition in Japan called "Space in European Art." It covered 2500 years of Western art and explored the Western perception of space which was different from the Japanese, he said.

Different perceptions of space were dependent on particular belief systems. In the Middle Ages and in some Eastern art, space had been flattened whereas Renaissance artists had developed perspective to represent three dimensions. Cubists had developed another concept of space, looking at objects from multiple viewpoints.

The idea of the curvature of space was first proposed by Einstein and had been developed by later physicists. The fact that space was curved might entail new ways of looking at space. "It is well understood by physicists that apples do not fall downwards from trees but are attracted towards a centre of denser gravity."

Paintings representing curved space had no top or bottom and so depended on rotational symmetry. They could be looked at from any angle and the principle of orientation around the centre was pivotal, he said.

They also relied on recursion across scales, a characteristic of computer fractals, in which the character of something was repeated whether the observer was close or at a distance, he said.

However, Mr Clothier said he was not only painting ideas. His own emotions and reverence for the wholeness of nature also influenced his paintings.

He was born and educated in Christchurch New Zealand, at Burnside High School and Canterbury University, then attended Monash University in Melbourne where he graduated with diploma in visual arts. In between visiting galleries in Europe, America and Japan, he was exhibition, education and publicity officer for the Akaroa gallery.