PROVENANCE
Paul & Kerry Barber Collection Tinakori Gallery

EXHIBITED I AM II, Tinakori Gallery, Wellington, 2002 Purchased from the above mentioned exhibition

I wasn't interested in repeating McCahon verbatim or merely appropriating his images, I wanted to find my own direction out of his material on my own terms. This involved relearning from McCahon as much as a determined departure from his edicts and constraints. The power of block letters, black, white and yellow ochre, necessary questioning, needed reforming around my own way of seeing - peopled, pictorialised, symbolised, de-sanctified or reglorified as needed.

Nigel Brown 2002 In the 2002 exhibition I AM II at Tinakori Gallery, Mark Hutchins wrote the following essay: As the title I AM II suggests, this exhibition represents the second wave of Nigel Brown's idiosyncratic, highly imaginative and often personally profound responses to some of Colin McCahon's best known imagery. Brown was a student of McCahon's at Elam School of Fine Arts during the late 60's early 70s. lnfluences of McCahon, both practical and visionary, who was even then gaining recognition as the catalyst and leading exponent of modern New Zealand painting, remain at the roots of Brown's own practice to this day. But although Brown makes frequent references to McCahon's iconic images in his I AM series, Brown's works are in fact also highly personal, speaking more about his own life and what he has achieved in over three decades of painting, than merely paying homage to his late tutor. ln Beyond Reasonable Doubt the artist has spoken of his intention to recall McCahon's lessons on cubism, exemplified by the masters stylizations of the Titirangi landscape in his French Bay series of the mid 1950s. Various compositional components evident in the background of Beyond Reasonable Doubt appear to be direct visual quotes from a number of McCahon's well known images, Moby Dick and Waterfalls in particular, while other elements are self-referential. Motifs such as the solitary autobiographical Kiwi joker with his black dog amidst stylized native vegetation have become signature images for Brown after being used by the artist consistently now over decades.

The title Beyond Reasonable Doubt is taken from the book written about Arthur Allen Thomas and the Crewe Murder case but when applied to Brown's iconic image of a calligraphic monolith looming large in a symbolically laden landscape, becomes far wider reaching in what it evokes. Directly overlaying the letters to create one sculptural focus transforms Brown's I AM into something reminiscent of the PAX (peace) motif used widely by the Christian church and as such brings to mind the long running debate on the value and relevance of traditional religious faith, a recurring issue for many in contemporary society who continue to search for meaning in the highly artificial computerized world most of us live in. By substituting I AM for PAX Brown is championing a humanist approach to spirituality - a celebration of the self rooted firmly in the landscape. As far as the metaphysical and psychological baggage associated with l AM goes, I relate to the statement not in a Christian way but as a potent claim and affirmation of the robust individual. There is, I suggest, a healthy aspect to people asserting their existence. NB As is usually the case, however, the rather direct readings offered here are but a few of the many interpretations suggested by the multi-layers of meaning that interfuse Brown's work. Most of his images that may initially appear quite simple and straightforward in narrative intent usually reveal themselves over time as a complex weave of the artist's creative and personal history, politics and social commentary on contemporary New Zealand culture.

Mark Hutchins