North or Bust
Robert Scott
Robert is a long standing artist and musician from Port Chalmers. He will also be performing an acoustic set at 116 Bank St from 8pm on the opening night. Please contact Hangar Gallery for more information. Robert exhibited a collection of paintings at the reopening exhibition at Hangar Gallery in 2017. The predominantly landscape works featured a solo inhabitant and were painted in acrylic on shaped boards. All works sold.
Born in 1960 in Dunedin, Robert grew up in East Taieri outside Mosgiel, and is 1 of 4 children. There were early stints in Dunedin and Christchurch before Robert moved to Port Chalmers in 1995. He found a community of like minded artists where creative practice moves across several disciplines, sound and visual art.
Robert’s lengthy musical career began as the bassist for the acclaimed group the Clean, and also as a founding member of the legendary Bats. Robert Scott, David and Hamish Kilgour (the Clean) were inducted into the New Zealand music hall of fame in 2018. The musical talent runs deep in he Scott family, daughter Brydie recently performed live with Superorganism on Conan NYC.
Art and music were intertwined within the ‘Dunedin sound’ movement. All the members of the Clean are longstanding practicing visual artists. Paul Kean bassist for the Bats describes Robert as a prolific song writer, who works hard, takes his paintings on tour in support of the merchandising table at gigs and has sold art over the globe!
The visual work compliments the amazing music that Robert has steadily and successfully produced for many years. Robert is not typical. There is a sense that he is conversing with you, with song craft so well developed. Its genesis is at the fruition of Dunedin sound, in the late 70’s.
The Deep Set, the latest offering of The Bats displays Scott’s art work on the cover. A must listen for those lost in the transient worlds. Images are created in the music coincide with the paintings, Robert the lyricist, and guitarist.
Although Robert studied at art school, he chose the bards life, but came back to visual art with a vengeance in the mid 90’s. His paintings identify with the Otago landscape. He engages with various ideas in the landscape, moa, spacemen, dinosaurs or lone farmers placed in surreal scenes. Robert takes a folk art approach, sometimes mixed with science fiction or “what if” scenarios, finely rendered in acrylic on board, his palette bright.
The DIY aesthetic runs strong, materials are resourced second hand, reclaimed, re-appropriated, and fittingly utilized as substrate for the finished article. There is an element of New Zealand gothic in the visual idea. There is a sense of time and place within the work, invested with witty commentary. The painterly approach captures the deep South landscape, with a steady observational reference to seasons change, and some of the more idiosyncratic southern moments. Robert’s sense of time unravels as we look through his minds eye at strange four legged beasts racing across his path on “Garbols Head East” or an Otago plains overview where you can almost smell the cut hay. Robert follows the path of seasons, a southern man identifying with his surrounds, and the amazing creative culture of the Otago district.
Robert Scott is of the ilk that has struck a chord with so many, inspired responses from the broader culture of New Zealand, in music, art, and style. By osmosis alone we get inspiration!
