Martin Basher, Untitled (detail), 2006. Courtesy of the artist. 

 

Martin Basher—Blackwater

1 - 30 July 2006 in the Hirschfeld Gallery

Wellington-based artist Martin Basher has created a strange new world: a post-apocalyptic environment where a lone man joyrides his way through a deserted landscape of pine trees, shantytowns and coloured lights; a wasteland of billowing smoke and refuse.

Basher’s paintings are set within an installation of detritus, painted trees, a beaten-up looking cantina (which offers ‘dineing and dancing’), an oil drum and a makeshift outdoor toilet—complete with a Shaker-style sweetheart detail. We are drawn into this environment even before we encounter the other paintings which give further clues to a possible narrative. Basher’s world would feel as at home in the illustrations of a comic book as in an art gallery, and like many comic novels, there are underlying messages and narratives should we choose to look for them.