And if you’ve had the pleasure of meeting the artist, as many in Southland have, it is interesting just how she physically presents. S/he is provocatively androgynous at best – another recurrent theme in Straka’s work that harks back to the very first painted collars of the late 80’s. Witness however the work entitled Died of Natural Causes, the effete figure in red jacket delightfully splayed atop a skinned bear. So the heartbeat of the hunter pulses right through this beautifully dressed group. And the young men are quite Aryan looking with their blonde hair, their comb-overs and their immaculate whites. Straka’s palette here is rich and elegant – based around creams, greys and reds – but it is at the same time utterly restrained. There has always been in her work a love of surface, an almost fetishist obsession for the look and appearance, for the dressing up of things, which goes a long way back. But quite what is she dressing up? Why this desire for masquerade? Does the southern man enjoy a little masquerade, a little cross-dressing, a little gender-bending perhaps? For you’d have to say that Heather Straka might do. She has obviously enjoyed the local dead rooms, being surrounded by the spoils of a successful hunt and the presence of many a glorious trophy. I look at the young men, consider the artist’s titling, and begin to wonder.Ĭonsider this notion of bloodlust I tell myself – along with that of the southern man – for these photographs reflect Heather Straka’s time in Southland after all. Then we learn that the chemical equations behind include the molecular drawings for testosterone. Aspects of the composition are like a Last Supper, except that here there are more stuffed animals and guns. Dark red drapes curtain some edges like a stage, as in Teamwork (below). All grouped in and around a big bench – a shallow space full of detail, with chalkboard and a series of formula like thoughtforms just behind. The artist here is literally director – a role she has played in the past, where she has photographed first, and then gone on to make a series of closely related paintings later.īut back to Bloodlust – just what have we got here? A tableau – a meticulous horizontally arranged menagerie of male flesh and dead animals. And assemble in the photography suite at the Southland Institute of Technology. Take six male models (from a local rugby team and gym) and a stylist – for consistency of hair, make-up and dress. Blood Lust is the title Heather Straka has given to a series of photographs she made in the first half of 2012, during her residency as William Hodges Fellow in Invercargill…
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