Russ Giles

The works in this exhibition were initiated on our return to live in Uptown Grafton in July 2023, having lived in Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands for 16 years. From ground level garden living to apartment clifftop dwelling in the city. 

This new work in the city, began with photographic observations and drawings of the continually changing roadside survey utility markings, the proliferation of orange cones, the significant buildings and places of interest and the ever present Lesser Black Backed gulls I watched as they set up their dwelling places on the rooftops. These images provided a scenario, real or imagined which paralleled our own and became the narrative to weave into this newly discovered cityscape.in the series Mates for Life. 

The constructed triptych formats and installations in this series, use a variety of mixed media, carved and textured surfaces to create individual spaces for a comic serial narrative. Painting techniques alternate between imitation of real surfaces and computer manipulated digital imagery. As the works moved into 2024 and 2025, they developed a pronounced Post Pop genre, particularly the installation work Out on the Street, which uses the regenerated traffic cones, cut out letters, numbers, and symbols.

Many of the individual works are supported by framed creative writing which expresses the artist’s discoveries and insights during the creation of this exhibition.