Simon Ingram on Maddie Leach

Maddie Leach's Ice Rink and Lilac Ship Gallery Six, Waikato Museum of Art and History / Te Whare Taonga o Waikato July 2002 Potentially one of the highlights of New Zealand's 2002 exhibition calendar is Maddie Leach's Ice Rink and Lilac Ship. A stretch of ice purpose built for skating upon ran 28 of this writer's paces down the length of a generously sized well lit gallery space. In an adjoining gallery, a slow contemplative video projection of massive ship passing over ocean all in Lilac, seeming to act as sounding board, increasing the resonance of the star attraction: The Ice Rink. Like much new art exhibited recently in public galleries in New Zealand, The Ice Rink's supporting material suggests the work in question has a dialogue with modernism, ". the work can serve as an unusual piece of minimalist sculpture ." Indeed it could, but is there such a need? 28 paces of ice, a collection of delighted viewers becoming participants, cool frosted air all seem somehow constrained by what might just be an unnecessary, possibly constraining, catch-all distinction. Parents and children alike cordially cued together. Bobbing, wobbling and gliding off down the strip, they seemed to actualize the work according to their actions and interactions with the ice and others. No need a discourse of minimalism, then. Work like this is able to realize a kind of plenitude not because it is coded with information about art, historical or otherwise, or because of cultural resonance. Rather it is because materiality matches what one might call its 'idea driver' seamlessly. The artist, who has made a feature of her work a certain commitment to ice skating, mentioned that she had chosen to steer clear of sequins, the Strictly Ballroom scenario. One might say that Paul Mercurio's pants are traded for the stealth and addiction to winter of Peter Hoeg's wonderfully atmospheric Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow with great success in what is a very good exhibition by this young New Zealand artist. Simon Ingram