Bill Riley, VAI, 6-28 June 2014

Vai is a tahitian word meaning clear water, a metaphor for environmental issues presented in the works and for an investigation of the value structures within contemporary painting.

What is the possibility of a political painting?

Not a work of activism but a work that activates response and thought.Not a billboard; an object that, through its history and the resonance of materials, demands thoughtful interaction.

Can gallery based art have a political relevance or is it far too comodified and about career building and not expression. Is it ever to suffer “Will it fit in the living room syndrome” where consistency = $$$$$. 

Is painting that self conscious that caring is unfashionable?...or is it just too cool to care?

Lets be honest does art make any difference?

These works are as much about the speechlessness of painting as they are  about ocean conservation.If one of the historic foundations of painting is the depiction and capturing of the sublime how do we now depict the  damage caused by human intervention?

The works in this exhibition utilise materials collected from the Rena disaster but their resonance is international.They signify the folly of man and his attempts to control the oceans and their resources.
Using this detritus and rendering it as gallery based objects, such as casting plastic on the inside of a shell to create forms that resonate a storm or breaking wave, or building paintings from the packaging of luxury products, signifies our callousness and the damage it causes, yet ironically, also our fragility and our inability to take action.