visual art – Bice Grace Lapin

The Weird Fiction of Robert Scott

Or should I say, ‘that is Robert Scott’

Weird Fiction in Art: Robert M. Scott’s Unique Expression

Who is Robert Scott? Well, a famous Robert Scott is, of course, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the doomed Antarctic explorer. A personality so steeped in legend that the man himself is buried somewhere within mysterious tales of adventure, heroism, and madness.

The Robert M. Scott of Dunedin, (Ōtepoti, Aotearoa), who came to my partner’s David Lynch themed 40th as a convincing Twin Peaks character – the FBI Gordon Cole, carrying a selection of Lynch soundtracks on cassette tapes, is, among certain circles, also steeped in legend.

Weird fiction is usually associated with literature and more recently, video games. Here however, I lay the term over Robert M Scott’s paintings and visual art. Keeping it local, lets reference Chris Lam’s 2024 University of Otago’s Master of Arts thesis titled The Simulated Weird, Video Games, Weird Fiction, and Gothic Horror.

My essay is written in celebration of Robert’s exhibition.

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⏰ 6 minutes

Walking the Absurd

Exploring cultural identity and feminism using the body in art with a focus on Angela Tiatia’s 2014 video artwork, Walking the Wall.

Is your body your own? Within it you experience; through it you express. Yet our bodies are surveilled and are regulated, both from without and from within ourselves. More than we often realise. Think Foucault.

Angela Tiatia uses her body to express the contradictions that push and pull on bodies. My essay draws upon thinkers in this sphere including Olu Oguibe and Brendan Hokowhitu, and a feminist art heritage.

Angela Tiatia, Walking the Wall, 2014 essay by Bice Grace Lapin

In Walking the Wall Angela Tiatia uses her body to assert and explore female indigenous heritage and identity in a society annexed by Western culture. Of Pacific Island heritage Tiatia is aware of the changing world in which we live. She has concerns about how globalisation does, and will affect people. Layered on this is both her particular connection with neo-colonialism and feminist views – these she believes, “sits on the body”. In her actions in this artwork she is presenting the ‘absurdity’ of these conflicting ideals placed on women within the indigenous milieu.

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⏰ 20-25 minutes

Tiatia's new work The Dark Current (2023) is presently on exhibition at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery to 27 April 2025.

Working with stone

Oamaru stone relief sculptures with soul – or rather the Māori word m auri is a closer characterisation.

Traditional tā moko or tattooing involves dialogue between the artist and the person. In short, artists should have some knowledge of the person before making marks.

Each of my stones are unique – designed and carved for the individual, family or place where it will be situated. At times with care and forethought I use these marks on my stonework breathing mauri into the stone giving it life, vitality, essence and emotion. The stone will then work with me, interacting with every touch while I remain constantly mindful of the person or people or place the stone is destined for.