Dear Beauty, Dear Beast: Reuben Paterson
In colours commissioned especially from the glitter manufacturer Dear Beauty, Dear Beast, is a handsome show of new paintings by Reuben Paterson.
The series began for Paterson as a reaction to New Zealand's provocation debate. In the way that previous bodies of work have honoured his whakapapa and found basis in the emotional responses to his genealogy, Paterson views these works, in part, as a personal homage to the victims of murder cases which have successfully used the provocation or "gay panic" defence.
The work suggests that in the same way that we have an underlying culture of racism, there is also an underlying culture of homophobia.
Dear Beauty, Dear Beast, coincides with Paterson's inclusion in the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial at the Queensland Art Gallery (5th December 2009 5 April 2010) and precedes his exhibition at the 17th Biennale of Sydney (May 12 - August 1 2010).
