Restlessly experimental, Watkins\u2019 work spans a wide range of media, encompassing prints, assemblages, and kinetic sculptures, in addition to a variety of paint-based techniques. In his image-making, he has flirted with diverse styles and modes, sampling and blending surrealism, pop, and text-based art\u2014seldom solely figurative, seldom completely abandoning real-world references. The references for the works in this show are of course book covers, which appear in the works themselves as digital prints. A watercolour by Watkins sits alongside each cover, mirroring its overall format. Sometimes the correspondence is close, as in Wisdom<\/em>. Sometimes it is looser, as in Eric<\/em>. Purged of any text, the watercolours bear a family resemblance to the covers, but they are never their twins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Watkins\u2019 use of book covers is a reflection of his long interest in, and respect for, design practices, including typography and book design.[1]<\/a> One could also interpret it as a subtle statement that print and material cultures ought not to be considered in isolation from the so-called \u2018fine arts\u2019, since these disciplines are all intimately bound up with the historical moment, and with that moment\u2019s aesthetic and ideological concerns. Wisdom in particular would seem to support this understanding, incorporating as it does a strident pattern that might equally be found on a poster, a ceramic jug, or a piece of fabric. The work reminds us that \u2018interdisciplinarity\u2019 is far from new, calling to mind the furious exchange between modernist designers and artists, whether those associated with the Bauhaus, Bloomsbury, or\u2014here in New Zealand\u2014the Group in Christchurch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The books chosen by Watkins are surely also significant in terms of their contents, but quite how we are to read them is not immediately clear. At first glance, they seem anachronistic. This is especially true of the publications that form the basis of Eric<\/em> and Loan Collection<\/em>: a 1946 book on the comparatively little-known English artist Eric Ravilious, and a catalogue for an exhibition of \u2018British Masters\u2019 that visited Auckland in 1937. Both came from the Fine Arts Library at the University of Auckland, a fact hinted at by the reinforced spine and the printed label. Such books are not esteemed today. We dismiss them for their unglamorous subjects, the limited number and quality of their reproductions, the perceived datedness of their texts. It is thus tempting to think of the books in Watkins\u2019 works as inevitable casualties of the march of time, destined to be shifted to offsite stacks or deaccessioned altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But although Watkins is unquestionably a witty artist, and his humour often dark, I find myself thinking of his diptychs as expressive of a genuine affinity for the subject matter of the books. There has lately been something of a revival of interest in Ravilious, who worked across a variety of disciplines, including painting, engraving, and design. One can picture Watkins poring over the publication, extracting elements of value with which to enrich his own multifarious practice. Then, too, one can imagine him leafing through the British Masters catalogue with enthusiasm, considering the specific works from the National and Tate Galleries that Aucklanders had access to that spring 80 years ago. What artists and works in our local history might bear the influence of those visitors from abroad?<\/p>\n\n\n\n It may seem trite to say it, but books, like other works of art, are a means to discovery. For people based in Aotearoa in the years before cheap flights and the internet, they were perhaps the primary way of finding out what was going on beyond these islands. Watkins has spent a large amount of time looking at books, not least because he has taught for many years at the University of Auckland, and\u2014as anyone who has worked for a tertiary institution will confirm\u2014one of the greatest perks of the job is the library card. We are fortunate that these works not only reflect Watkins\u2019 incorrigible curiosity, but also provide us with rich material for discoveries of our own. Consider Loan Collection<\/em>, with its spectral circles of deep green and black, looming against a mottled brown that so perfectly evokes the ageing of once dove grey board. It\u2019s the work of a master, whose misquotations are, in their own way, absolutely right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *<\/p>\n\n\n\n Text written to accompany the exhibition Fluid structures<\/em>. Learn more<\/a> and read other essays<\/a> via Parlour Projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fluid structures: watercolour group show<\/em><\/strong> 24 March to 22 April 2017![\"\"](\"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Denys-Watkins-Eric-2016-2.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDenys Watkins, Eric<\/em>, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist and Parlour Projects, Heretaunga Hastings.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/francismcwhannell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Denys-Watkins-Loan-Collection-2016-2.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDenys Watkins, Loan Collection<\/em>, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist and Parlour Projects, Heretaunga Hastings.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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Curated by Francis McWhannell<\/strong>
With essays by Lucinda Bennett, Francis McWhannell, Tendai John Mutambu, Linda Tyler, and Victoria Wynne-Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Parlour Projects
Heretaunga Hastings<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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