Neil Dawson's sharp cards in Wellington

Three of a Kind, Neil Dawson
Page Blackie Gallery
Until June 19

Years ago there used to be a story on the radio about a soldier being court-martialled for playing cards while on duty. In his defence he said the pack of cards was his bible.

The “1” stood for the one god, the “3” for the three persons in that god. There were 52 cards, the same as the number of weeks in the year and the 365 pips on all the cards was the number of days in the year and so on. The pack of cards then became a mixture of bible and almanac.

This notion that numbers or cards can have some deeper or hidden meaning is apparent in Neil Dawson’s latest show Three of a Kind. It also demonstrates that cards and games of chance generate elaborate sets of rules and interconnections

The artist has created a series of large (roughly 500mm by 700mm) powder coated silk screened playing cards. He uses the patterns on the reverse side of the cards to “discover” patterns which impact on the face of the cards or, in some cases he uses the face to create designs as with “Deck. Ace of Spades” ($6200) where the shape of the large ace is cut into a frilly shape so that the pattern side erupts with a plant-like form.

With “Deck. Five of Diamonds” ($6200) he has discerned the architectural outline of the Taj Mahal as though it has lain hidden for many years. The three dimensional construction that emerges not only involves the outline of the architecture but the shape then casts a reflection-like shadow of the building on the wall of the gallery.

Other cards owe something to a mixture of Esher and magic carpets with the patterns appearing to morph from one state into another.

He also includes three models of building created from cards in an elaborate version of the children’s activity of building houses out of cards. These include “Whare” ($12,250), “Rua’s Temple” ($12,250) and “Duomo” ($12,500) which is a model of the dome of the cathedral in Florence designed by Brunelleschi.

“Whare”, the Maori meeting house cleverly illustrates the similarities between card patterns and tukutuku panels as well as other connections to Asian and Arabic designs.

“Rua's Temple,” which is a model of the temple that Rua Kenena built in the early twentieth century, is composed of cards and is play on the fact that the temple was originally decorated in blue clubs and yellow diamonds. This work seems to refer to the black and white photograph of the construction as the cards he uses are of black diamonds as well as black clubs.

The manipulation of metal has been significant in much of Dawson’s work and two of his previous works are also in the show. “Vanishing Point Blue” ($15,300) feature a series of cylinder shapes which get progressively smaller, combining to form a large conical shape.

Also included is his “Beam - Houses” ($5100), which relates partly to the rectangular shape of the cards but also to many of his works where he uses a simple house facade shape.