Wabi-Sabi

Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese art aesthetic that appreciates a beauty of things imperfect, imper-manent, and incomplete. A beauty of things unconventional. Although Kirsch still knowslittle about Wabi-Sabi this idea appealed greatly and gave him a title for his sleeping beau-ties.Also, since the beginning of the millennium, Kirsch spent countless days everywhere in theCoromandel backcountry you could think of.

Trailing along with his friend KeithStephenson he helped set up each year’s secret course of the Coromandel Adventure Race.This took them to the most stunning places and the most remote corners you could imag-ine. The amazing thing was that even though you think you’re somewhere in the middle ofparadise at the end of the world, you always come across an old wreck somewhere, guar-anteed. You can count on it.

These old wrecks struck him being as much part of the visualvernacular of our unique environment as everything else from bush to hills to sheep to oldsheds and the coast. In this completely new body of work the artist offers a surprising, gentle, and completelyunusual new way to look at abandoned automobiles from around the beautifulCoromandel Peninsula.

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Some of the beauty in this project is that most of these wrecks in the bush are pretty oldautomobiles, that belong to a by-gone era. They are much closer in style to the vehiclesthat rolled around the streets when Kirsch grew up in Berlin, Germany, and was first exposed to cars. Compared to today’s cars, the design is different, the feel is different, thetechnology is different, their colours are different, their buttons and switches and gaugesare different, they smell differently, and their size is very different! These are automobiles from another time, from before the digital age – very simple, ana-logue-type machines. Our mind is still capable of comprehending their functionality. Wecan relate to what we see. An air of slowness and friendliness surrounds them, despite (orsupported by) their more or less advanced state of dissolution.

Their bulkiness, and oftenexcessive size, provides something fascinating and satisfying.“It is really gratifying to know”, says Kirsch, “that my friend, and project welder PaulBaylis drives around in one of the coolest cars by far - a modified, matte black, 1974Chrysler S.E. It isn’t often that people turn up in such appropriate vehicles for a job likethis”. It’s his Valiant Hemi, featured in the work, that is rotting away in Papa Aroha. Hekeeps it as a spare part supply for the S.E. Surprisingly Kirsch’s other friend Rich Visick,recently got himself an authentic old white Bedford truck. No frills, no rust, and all origi-nal. It goes 70 km/h max on 6 cylinders and gets dreadful mileage. Interestingly, both vehi-cles (in slightly different form) feature in this body of work.

And while these big old cars on some level are completely mad, they also offer somethingvery satisfying, and in a way balancing, to our increasingly efficient and ever so sensibleworld of high-tech delusion.----- This is the debut showing of Kirsch's Wabi-Sabi of the Sleeping Beauties. It combinesscreen prints on car body parts, screen prints on paper, photographs and a sound installa-tion.

You will be able to view a > comprehensive selection of work printed on actual metal pan-els cut from the vehicles which are depicted. In addition there is > a limited and signed edi-tion of 6 on paper, created with the same printing screens. > A selection of outstandingphotographic images taken for this project will be on display also, and limited editionprints will be available. > A complimenting book featuring additional material will belaunched.This exhibition also features > a sound installation by audio engineer Nalan Kirsch, whichblends a variety of mostly natural location sounds. Displacing these into a highly con-trolled, man-made environment like this gallery offers an interesting reverse parallel to theout-of-context vehicles in their natural settings.

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Artist Info Completely mad, but why not! Wabi-Sabi of the Sleeping Beauties is the most recent proj-ect by up and coming New Zealand artist Daniel Kirsch. Amazing things can happen whenbased in the Wop-Wops of beautiful Coromandel and operating on a german-coined mind.Kirsch’s grungy but fresh work amalgamates opposites like petrol heads with environment,and spirituality with car art. When the Berliner Kirsch arrived to NZ by cargo vessel 10years ago, he went straight for rural Coromandel – and stayed.

An intimate relationshipdeveloped with his new environment, not the least from ”going bush“ a lot. With a widearray of styles ranging from quick brush and ink drawings, acrylic paintings to cut-up andprinted-on beehive boxes or car wrecks the artist expresses his desire to explore, under-stand and refine his love and respect for his fascinating not so new anymore and certainlyvery different home.

He is one of those rare, new artists whose fresh approach and dedica-tion ensures a promising future