Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
Jason Greig Blood is Thicker
By Chelsea Nichols and Aaron Lister
Massey University Press
RRP $70.00
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
New Zealand Gothic has always had a presence on the margins of New Zealand culture making regular appearances in our art, literature and music.
Bill Hammond’s paintings were infused with a Gothic brooding and there are other artists like Ronnie Van Hout who for a long time milked debased Gothic tropes and channelled impulses from other side and there are others like Seraphine Pick and Tony De Lautour.
Recently Jason Greig, one of the great Gothic artists the country has produced has had shows of his work at Wellington City Gallery, The Dowse and the Christchurch City Art Gallery bringing the Gothic images in exquisite chiaroscuro of brooding Heathcliff-like figures, ethereal women, and the grim reaper to new audiences.
With the publication of the book which accompanies his Christchurch show Blood Is Thicker, his images of Gothic shadows, werewolves and Old Masters collide.
In this darkly luminous survey, Greig’s monoprints and paintings audiences were introduced to their ancestors – Goya, Redon, Kollwitz, Doré, Rops revealing a gothic lineage where printer’s ink flows like blood through art history’s veins.
Greig has long been the romantic, old soul of New Zealand art—a maker of haunted worlds and summoner of inner demons, both mythic and human. His work feels conjured from another century, yet belongs utterly to this one: a world where Lemmy from Motörhead sits comfortably alongside the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe.
The book also charts the tumultuous times of Greig facing his addictions and demons, periods in his life which are mirrored in his art of darkness and shadowy figures. These were times when he identifies with the characters of Robert Louis Stevensons “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mt Hyde”. As he says of his own road to rehabilitation, reading the book helped him gain insights into his own condition.
“I get the book and I start reading it, and this time it all makes sense because I’m taking it really personally was overwhelming, you know, this story about duality, and the duality is multi-layered in itself-good versus evil.”
The writers By Chelsea Nichols and Aaron Lister have spoken about the background to their writing the book. “There was a really important moment for us during Occulture: The Dark Arts, an exhibition Aaron curated at City Gallery Wellington in 2017, which included Jason Greig’s extraordinary series Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Chelsea was in the audience when Aaron and Jason gave a raw and deeply personal conversation about the battle between light and dark that exists in all of us. Blame it on the occult atmosphere of the exhibition, but in that moment she had a strange premonition that one day the three of us would work together on something much bigger.”
“It took almost a decade for the stars — or perhaps the dark forces — to align. The exhibition was originally intended for City Gallery Wellington, but the closure of Civic Square meant it eventually found its home at The Dowse. In hindsight, that turned out to be a gift. The project became much richer because it was shaped by two institutions, two curators, and one shared obsession with Jason’s work. Looking back, it feels less like we chose this project than that it had been patiently waiting for the three of us to catch up.”
“People often imagine Aotearoa art standing in bright, clear light, gazing thoughtfully at majestic mountains. But that’s only half the story. The other half has always been taking place in the shadows behind the shed, beyond the edge of town or just out of sight. Tony Fomison understood that saints and derelicts often wore the same face. Today, a new generation of artists in Aotearoa is pushing that lineage in multiple unexpected directions. Most count Jason Greig as a touchstone. We’ve always produced artists willing to confront death, violence, desire and the uncanny. Jason Greig stands firmly at the bleeding heart of that tradition.”
