Regan Gentry
Indoor/Outdoor Flow
2006
rope
Indoor-Outdoor Flow is a tree house for grown-ups. This tree house is designed to be appreciated while one’s feet are firmly planted on the ground. The work involves a cunning system of five cross-tensioned ropes that create a house form suspended above the ground. The work is strung between ten fixing locations, weaving the work into its surroundings.
A distinguishing feature of Gentry’s work is his response to site; a highlight is the inventiveness with which he intervenes. Often he elevates ‘common’ objects; in Indoor-Outdoor Flow he takes a new turn and addresses the ‘elevated’. Indoor-Outdoor Flow can be seen as a new take on Echo, Neil Dawson’s 1990 suspended sculpture at the Christchurch Arts Centre.
Gentry’s art is characterized by an element of playfulness. This manifests in concept as well as in the form and medium of each work. He usually works with materials or forms that are familiar and known in everyday life. From this starting point, anything can happen. An ironing board can host a ton of rubble (A Range 2004), a deckchair can grow to Brobdingnagian proportions (Limousine Lounger 2005), a rubbish skip can be domesticated (Skip it 2004).
At Brick Bay, Gentry enhances his reputation as one of New Zealand’s most innovative young sculptors. It is the range of innovation in his work that sets him apart from his peers. He has worked in such a variety of forms and materials that one has come to expect the unexpected from him. His practice spans installation, sculpture and video. He consistently challenges conventional ways of seeing and explores the possibilities of intervention.
The ‘tree house for adults,’ Indoor-Outdoor Flow, can be installed in a variety of sizes and situations, outside or indoors. The fixing locations can be a mixture of natural or man-made features. Each new installation will be fashioned by its surroundings. In a playful take on “real estate speak”, Gentry gives us a house with the ultimate ‘indoor/outdoor flow’.
Dr. Robin Woodward
