Provenance:
Private Collection, Wellington

When it comes to the formal quality and subject matter of Hotere's work, the colour black and the artist's local Port Chalmers inevitably come to mind. Consistently and right across the breadth of the artist's oeuvre, these two elements re-appear in the most accomplished and spiritually-charged of painted unions.

This fine work on paper is no exception. The solemn presence of landmass as viewed from the artist's studio descends into downwards dreaminess; studded details intersecting at the meeting of land and sky suggest the motion of avian life and civilisation.

Untitled - Port Chalmers offers an interesting departure from the darker foundations which ground many other works of this series, and Hotere's physical contact with the work's surface has been relatively minimal herein. The burnishing mark of the 'X' at the centre of the painting naturally demands visual focus. Tantalising in its presence, it seems to hover above the paper, the corresponding grey lines beneath it casting relief and shadow. At the same time, in the matte surface of the medium we also feel it on the canvas, and bleeding into it. Finally, this Trinitarian illusion completes itself in sinking down and piercing the canvas, a gesture which is emblematic of Hotere's own visceral relationship with media, and recalls the physicality of Lucio Fontana's slashed canvases.