New gold dream

As artist Reuben Paterson heads for New York, a major exhibition looks at where he's been and where he's going. It marks an exciting turning point.

- LINDA HERRICK

Start spreading the news. His vagabond shoes are longing to stray. Yes, at the ripe old age of 49, Auckland artist Reuben Patterson is heading for the Big Apple. But before he leaves, the City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi is planning a show which most definitely won’t be a retrospective.

The selection of works tracking his diverse practice from the past 25 years, plus “a few surprises”, marks a turning point for Paterson on the curving path of life.

“I think Aaron [Lister] and Karl [Chitham, the co-curators] want to call it a survey,” he says on the phone from his West Auckland home. “A ‘retrospective’ can sound quite damaging, as though nothing is going to come afterwards. Even ‘survey’ is only halfway there.”

The show, which will occupy the gallery’s entire ground floor, is named The Only Dream Left. The title, suggested by Chitham, is lifted from Flying Nun band The Verlaines’ melancholic song, Only Dream Left, from 1987.

It’s also the name of a recent painting by Paterson, a 2m x 2m beauty filled with intertwining blue kōwhaiwhai shapes shimmering with a dusting of his emblematic glitter.

Paterson’s titles, always carefully considered, take on a deeper significance in this case. The Verlaines’ lyrics say: “I’m labelled unbred, on sight unclean. Got a message from home, saying it don’t exist no more … You’re the only dream left– the only dream left.”