RICHARD ORJIS

Milford Galleries Dunedin18 Dowling Street (03) 477 7727 [email protected]

www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

Richard OrjisParis is Burning15 September - 10 October 2012

1. parisisburning (2012), unique photographic print, frame: 946 x 646 x 60 mm

2. thecircularnatureofthings (2012), unique photographic print, frame: 946 x 646 x 60 mm

3. inthatinstantwewerealive (2012), unique photographic print, frame: 946 x 646 x 60 mm

4. fallingdiamonds (2012), unique photographic print, frame: 946 x 646 x 60 mm

5. drippingingold (2012), unique photographic print, frame: 946 x 646 x 60 mm

6. the-letter-i-never-wrote-you (2012), unique photographic print, frame: 946 x 646 x 60 mm

7. stilltheskyisblue (2012), unique photographic print, frame: 946 x 646 x 60 mm

8. impossibleprincess (2012), unique photographic print, frame: 946 x 646 x 60 mm

9. Marie (2012), unique photographic print, frame: 946 x 646 x 60 mm

10. deafsymphony (2012), unique photographic print, frame: 946 x 646 x 60 mm

Combining traditional photographic imagery with digital collages, the works in

Richard Orjis’ Paris is Burning subvert any expectations of a singular visual text. Orjis

manipulates black and white photographs taken or found while on residency in

France, and finally adds an overlay of predominantly bejewelled images from the

pages of glossy auction house catalogues.

Marie, with its Daliesque overtones, examines the social divisions (and delusions) in

existence today, alluding as it does to that most well-known French figure of excess,

Marie Antoinette. Her re-creation of Arcadian ‘country scenes’ on the grounds of

Versailles, is well documented, and could not have been further from the dirty

poverty of the French peasantry. Orjis presents his country farmhouse complete with

weeds in the thatch and decay on the walls, and the sapphire eyes confront the

viewer directly with a simultaneous vision of “decadence and de cay.”(1)

The glittering facets and heightened colours of the gold and crystalline objects

catch the eye at first, only later does the gaze take in the tonal contrast of the black

and white photography. Divorced from its commercial context and the bodies it is

meant to adorn, the jewellery trumpets a blatant message of conspicuous

consumption and excess, especially noticeable against Orjis’ deserted farm and

fields. Orjis’ ironic take on consumption devoid of necessity and consumption

necessary for life is clearly seen in impossibleprincess: the ruby lips and pearly teeth

cannot eat, they exist to be consumed, as do the rows of vegetables behind them.

Two works remain free from precious metals and stones: deafsymphony and

inthatinstantwewerealive are studies of form, light and shadow. Orjis isolates

sculptural details and by doing so gives them a life separated from their original

context; they become organic forms twisting in space rather than mere architectural

flourishes from a larger work.

Orjis extends his manipulation of context away from the purely physical images he

has produced, as most of the titles of his works lead to random Tumblr sites.

Tumblr.com is a micro-blogging site that allows individuals to post images, videos and

links in a scrapbook format; these can be accessed by others who may share

content, ask questions, and place comments on the page.

All prices are NZD and include GST; Prices are current at the time of the exhibition

Viewing Orjis’ artworks through this multimedia overlay allows the viewer to re-

contextualise them completely. The parallels between these ‘borrowed’ images and

Orjis’ physical use of found imagery reinforces an idea of inter-connectivity. By

choosing to activate the Tumblr links (eg: deafsymphony.tumblr.com), the viewer

becomes complicit in the creation of the artwork as it is recreated each time they

do so, as the site they find may have changed, or disappeared entirely.

1. Richard Orjis, Artist’s Statement, August, 2012

E X H I B I T I O N P R I C E L I S T

1 parisisburning (2012) 3,500

2 thecircularnatureofthings (2012) 3,500

3 inthatinstantwewerealive (2012) 3,500

4 fallingdiamonds (2012) 3,500

5 drippingingold (2012) 3,500

6 the-letter-i-never-wrote-you (2012) 3,500

7 stilltheskyisblue (2012) 3,500

8 impossibleprincess (2012) 3,500

9 Marie (2012) 3,500

10 deafsymphony (2012) 3,500

Richard Orjis 2012 CV Milford Galleries Dunedin www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

P a g e | 1

RICHARD ORJIS B. 1979, lives Auckland

Hope It's Not Too Late (2010)

"Orjis is the artist as pop philosopher, interested in blurring artistic genres and aesthetic categories." (1)

“His work is designed to illustrate non-existent, shadowy social groups. In his own words: "I create

ritualistic or cult-like imagery that deals with the conflict between humans and nature, nature being

defined as environments, both physical and psychological, that are not created or controlled by

humans. While natural landscapes can be sublime in their beauty, they are also places that can be

dangerous, hostile and destructive. Furthermore, the night offers an historical stage for rituals to take

place, as the blackness gives a sense of mystery and ambiguity that is consistent throughout my

work.” (2)

“I can see that it might seem like I’m working with lots of different things, but everything I do comes

from the same place and is normally about the same concerns. For me, the work revolves around four

main intersecting and fluid connections, that of nature, cult, myth and the gothic. Nature can be

seen as beautiful and pure, and intrinsically good, but also as dangerous and destructive, a spectacle

of the devourers and the devoured. This tense relationship of attraction and repulsion feeds into my

practice. I explore notions of beauty laced with an undercurrent of ugliness, or vice versa.” (3)

“My work sits itself within the framework of the gothic. Just as society seeks to sanitize nature, many

human emotions are repressed in the on going process of civilisation. The gothic sensibility explores this

dark underbelly, seeking to access the sublime through dark beauty, melancholy, lust, death fear and

violence.

I seek to connect contemporary culture with antiquity, the gothic psych surfaces in many different

forms in art and culture throughout history. The gothic is present in contemporary culture in the form of

heavy metal music, video games, horror and science fiction movies.” (4)

Richard Orjis was born in Whanganui in 1979, and lives and works in Auckland. He is a multimedia artist,

utilising photography, paint, sculpture and performance. Orjis completed his Master of Fine Arts at

Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 2006 having previously earned a BVA in 2001 at

Auckland University of Technology. He has exhibited extensively, including exhibitions in New York,

Basel, Miami, Madrid, Barcelona, Paris and Auckland.

1. David Eggleton, 'Dangerous Eye Candy', NZ Listener, 2010

2. Warwick Brown, 'Seen This Century', Godwit, 2009

3. Jason Lingard, ‘Richard Orjis’, None Magazine, 2007

4. Ibid

Richard Orjis 2012 CV Milford Galleries Dunedin www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

P a g e | 2

RICHARD ORJIS B. 1979, lives Auckland

EDUCATION

Master of Fine Arts, Elam, The University of Auckland, 2006

Bachelor of Visual Arts, AUT, Auckland, 2001

Certificate in Art & Design, AUT, Auckland, 1998

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2012 Paris is Burning, Milford Galleries Dunedin

By Quiet Volcanoes, Melanie Roger Gallery, Auckland

Small Histories, Art Station, Auckland

Follow You, Follow You, Snake Pit, Auckland

2011 Fields, McNamara Gallery, Whanganui

2010 A Garden, Milford Galleries Dunedin

Grass Circle, Te Tuhi Center for the Arts, Auckland

Silver Park, HSP, Christchurch

Park, Public Art Lightbox Installation, Bledisloe Walkway, Auckland City

2009 Richard Orjis, Starkwhite Gallery, Auckland

2008 little black flower grow, in the sky, Luis Adelantado, Valencia, Spain

YES, Te Tuhi Centre for Arts, Auckland,

Richard Orjis, Starkwhite, Auckland

Landslide, McNamara Gallery, Whanganui

Welcome to the Jungle, The Physic Room, Christchurch

2007 My Empire of Dirt: Selected works on paper, Roger Williams Contemporary, Auckland,

2006 Dep_art_ment, Auckland

2005 Dep_art_ment, Auckland

2004 Richard Orjis, Galeria Luis Adelantado, Valencia, Spain

Richard Orjis, Galeria Llucia Homs, Barcelona, Spain

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2012 Small Works, milford galleries queenstown

The Earl Street Journal (2011-2012), milford galleries queenstown

Follow You, Follow You, Snake Pit, Auckland

2011 Material Motives, Milford Galleries Dunedin

Animal Aesthetics, The Papakura Art Gallery, Auckland

In Another Universe, The University of Waikato, Hamilton

2010 The Marvelous, Bartley & Company, Wellington

MADRIDFOTO, Galeria Luis Adelantado, Palacio de Deportes de la Comunicad, Madrid, Spain

PUTIPUTI: The flower in Contemporary Art, Hasting City Art Gallery, Hastings

Floriferous, Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui

2009 The Enchanted Garden, Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki

Recent: Ten Contemporary NZ Photographers, Tauranga Art Gallery

Animal Farm: 4 Legs Good, Sargeant Gallery, Whanganui

Flora: Growth Between Neighbours, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

Seen this Century, Judith Anderson Gallery, Hastings

2008 The Maui Destiny, The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatu, Nelson

2007 Vice, Luis Adelantado, Miami, USA

Picnics and Revolutions, Roger Williams Contemporary, Auckland

Richard Orjis / Todd Stratton, Roger Williams Contemporary, Auckland

Art is 4 Lovers, Butterfly Net, Auckland

Jewellery out of Context: an exhibition of New Zealand artists / curated by Dr Carole Sheperd

and Peer Deckers, Object Space, Auckland

Fat of the Land, Creative New Zealand, Auckland

Asian at the Wheel, Gus Fisher Gallery, University of Auckland, Auckland

Richard Orjis 2012 CV Milford Galleries Dunedin www.milfordgalleries.co.nz

P a g e | 3

2006 The New Situationists, City Gallery, Wellington

The New Situationists, Canary Gallery, Auckland

The Orchid Show, Mount Street, Auckland

Arquivar Tormentas, Centro Galego De Arte Contemporanea, Santiago, Spain

Summer Exhibition, Roger Williams Contemporary, Auckland

2005 Me, Me, Me, Room 103, Auckland

Bring Your Caddy, Stanbeth House, Auckland

2003 In Faccia Al Mondo ‘Contemporary Portraits in Photography’, The Museum of Contemporary

Art of Villa Croce, Genoa, Italy

Angst, RARE, New York, USA

Group Show, Galeria Luis Adelantado, Valencia, Spain

COLLECTIONS

The Real Arts Road Show

The Jenny Gibbs Collection, Auckland

The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, Madrid, Spain

The Film Archive, Wellington

The University of Auckland Collection, Auckland

Wallace Trust Collection, Auckland

BIBLIOGRAPHY 2012 Brown, David Lyndon, Beautiful Scary: The Totemic Art of Richard Orjis, Art New Zealand,

Number 142/Winter 2012, p56-59

2010 Eggleton, David, Poisonous Eye Candy, NZ Listener, September 18th, 2010

2009 Brown, Warwick, Seen This Century: 100 Contemporary New Zealand Artists, Godwit, Random

House, 2009, p304–307

Real Art Trust Staff, Real Art Roadshow: The Book, Real Art Charitable Trust, 2009, p162–163

Serrat, Carlos, Contemporary Paganism, The Creator Studio, # 11 Rituals, April 2008, p4–13

2008 Orjis, Richard Coal Choir, No Magazine, Issue 2 2008, p61–69

McNaughton, Harry, Richard Orjis, No. Magazine, Issue 1, March 2008, p18–19

Pickens, Robyn, Expressions of Contradictions, The Press, Christchurch, Wednesday, April 16,

2008, pD5

2007 Battersby, Shandelle, Richard Orjis, Artists and Mud Fan, Time Out, The New Zealand Herald,

May 17–23, 2007, p5

Chang, Lulu, The Garden of Unearthly Delight, Soma, Volume 21.4, May/June 2007, p30

Coney, Hamish, Future Schlock: An old fogey looks at the work of today’s yoof, Ideolog, #7,

January – February 2007, p95

Hall, Oliver, International Achiever, Express, 25 April – 1 May 2007, p10–11

Hamilton, Summer, Auckland Art Fair 07, KiaOra, May 2007, p72

Laird, Tessa, Secrets of the Soil: Richard Orjis and his Empire of Dirt, White Fungus, Issue 8, 2007,

p34–41

Lingard, Jason, Richard Orjis, Nothing Magazine, Issue 11 2007

Mudie, Ella, The Dark side: Richard Orjis, Dazed and Confused Aus/NZ, Volume 1 Issue 3 2007,

p137

2006 Orjis, Richard, Momento Mori, New Zealand Home & Entertaining, April/May 2006, p 62–69

2005 Williams, Melinda, Hip to be Square, Sunday Life and View, Herald on Sunday, April 3–9, 2005,

p6–8

2004 Capdevilla, Marta, Up-State, Suite, 29, October 2004, p64

Mogutin, Slava, Anthony et Richard, TETU, No 88, April 2004, p34-35

Tabron, Delaney, Richard Orjis, Pavement, Summer 2004/2005, Issue 66, p43

Ventur, Conrad, NYC Photographers, Useless Magazine, Vol 1 No 1, Fall/Winter 2004, p46

2003 Arevalo, Pilar, Narcissist, Artist or just Taking the Piss?, Oyster, Issue 43, December/January 2003,

pp48–51

Northcross, Wayne, Razzle-Basel, Instinct, Vol 6 Issue 2, February 2003, p16

Suau, Christina, Richard Orjis, ELLE, Spain, No. 197, February, 2003, p72

Olveira, Manuel, A Story with a viewpoint, Arquivar Tormentas, Centro Galego De Arte

Contemporanea, Santiago, Spain, pp27–31