New Ray Ching exhibition and book imagines Aesop in NZ

Dawn Chorus
by Ray Ching
Artis Gallery 
November 25–December 21

Dawn Chorus
illustrated by Ray Ching, Text by Carolyn Ching
David Bateman
RRP $59.99 

Next week sees the opening of a new Ray Ching exhibition along with the launch of his first graphic novel Dawn Chorus. Some of the images used to illustrate the book are the works on show at the exhibition

The paintings and the book tell of Aesop and his journey to the Antipodes, to Aotearoa New Zealand, where he is greeted by the animals and birds and where he wrote many of his later fables. Ray Ching has drawn and painted more than 200 pages for the volume and his wife, Carolyn Ching, has written the text which the artist has hand lettered in both English and Latin. Ching has created magical, humorous and beautiful images for this imagined story of Aesop’s visit to New Zealand, which the artiest describes,as an Antipodean Fantasy. The book is in six parts beginning with The Arrival, in which the birds of New Zealand share the news of Aesop’s visit.

The second part, The Voyage, outlines Aesop’s background and life before he journeys to New Zealand. The third part, The Great Bathing, looks at the preparations of the birds as they ready themselves for the concert they plan to give in Aesop’s honour, while The Journeys illustrates some of the voyages the birds had to make to be there. The Concert records the concert given by the birds which also includes the words of their songs and the final chapter contains the fables Aesop wrote while in New Zealand.

These fables don’t quite have the quirkiness and universality of the original tales but there are some clever attempts at the anthropomorphism of the birds and animals. It is the images which Ching has produced which make the book and the exhibition impressive, notably in the images of the concert in which the birds sing to Aesop. These include a delightful work in which kakapo sing Pokarekare Ana, making use of actual sheet music.

Ching’s method of including text in his works is at once very modern, with its reference to McCahon and contemporary advertising, as well as having links to medieval images which contain text.

Among the impressive works are those where birds are depicted such as Kingfishers Together. In others birds are depicted in their natural habitat such as Squabbles while others are depicted in an urban environment such as Skylark over Reuban Avenue. The paintings in the book are interspersed with studies drawn by the artist showing his ability to capture not only the shape and textures of the birds but also something of their personality, birds caught in mid conversation and thought.

Ching himself is like some modern day Aesop, making us aware of the characters and characteristics of the birds and animals of the natural world and the way in which they can be both symbols and metaphors for our own personalities and lives.