Carousel Horse

Carousel Horse is an exhibition by Te Whanganui-a-Tara based artists Ben Lysaght and Rubetta Neal. 

Both artists share collage as part of their methodology, with Neal working digitally and Lysaght physically, these are then translated into paint. The artists come together in process and diverge in practice, bonding over their shared use of the carousel horse in previous work, both their interests lie in its garish imitation of life. A literal spinning of wheels, made to delight, with a gilded decadence that lies hollow. 

Collage is a medium built from cycles of value, worth and rediscovery, and still is inescapably tainted by a sense of lost history. It’s a mishmashed mess of parts, trying to form a whole from the disparate shards of unrelated sources. Through reconfiguration of found imagery into collage and then into the eventual painted object, both artists construct surreal narratives from the multitude of media discarded before them. 

Through paint, the artists' time and labour transforms the 'borrowed' imagery into objects of 'permanence', even 'earnestness', that are both abstract and amusing. The translation of found imagery into paint implies a validation of existence. Painting ensures a physical survival that can convey legitimacy, warranted or not, thus contradicting the ephemeral quality of the sourced imagery.

Lysaght's imagery comes from a sense of rescue and resurgence, sourced from vintage books due for discard. Neals' practice unfolds from the endless, overwhelming stream of imagery constantly infiltrating our lives online, where they are decontextualised faster than ever before. 

Collage is a medium of projection, cycling through what we desire and disregarding anything beyond, uniting the unknown and the familiar in an endless carousel of delight and discomfort. 

Image courtesy of Rubetta Neal

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Opening Preview
Friday 24 April, 6-8pm

Panel Talk with guest writer Toni Lane, Ben Lysaght and Rubetta Neal
Saturday 25 April, 1-2pm

Curator Tour
Friday 5 June, 11am-12pm

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About the artists

Rubetta Neal is an artist based in Pōneke, Wellington and graduated from Massey University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) in 2023.

Rubetta has continued her painting practice whilst also Facilitating at Meanwhile Gallery. Her painting practice centres on reworking existing imagery to unsettle the familiar and disrupt passive viewing. Drawing on photographic references, she highlights the decontextualisation of information and imagery in our everyday lives, and the ease with which image proliferation reshapes narrative. Rubetta’s paintings work to explore and resist digital tensions whilst embracing the ominous, surreal, and absurd contradictions of living within a contemporary digital existence.

@ettas_a_imposter


Ben Lysaght (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Pākehā) b. 1996, Hakatere) is an emerging multidisciplinary visual artist working primarily in oil paint and collage, currently interested in cycles of value, camp delight and mortality. Lysaght has been regularly exhibiting in solo and group shows since graduating from Massey University with a Bachelor in Fine Arts (Hons) in 2019. He is currently Curatorial Director of the artist-run space, MEANWHILE Gallery. His work has been acquired in the collections of Wellington City council and Ashburton Art Gallery. 

@blysaghtart