The First Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Anne Noble was born in Wanganui, New Zealand in 1954. She attended Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, graduating with a Master of Fine Arts (Hons.) in 1983. In 1982, in association with the Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui, she mounted an exhibition of photographs of the Wanganui River and published The Wanganui in association with the magazine Photo-Forum. She lived in London between 1985 and 1989, working at various times for the Civic Trust and the Tidy Britain Group while making a documentary essay about an order of contemplative nuns; during this time she was assisted by grants from the Greater London Arts Council and the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand. On her return to New Zealand in 1989 to take up the position as Artist-in-Residence at Tylee Cottage in Wanganui, the Sarjeant Gallery mounted an exhibition of this work, entitled 'In the Presence of Angels - Photographs of the Contemplative Life', which toured New Zealand during 1991-92. Anne Noble has h~ld numerous solo exhibitions of her photographs throughout New Zealand and has participated in group shows including 'Views/Exposures - Ten Contemporary NewZealand Photographers', National Art Gallery, Wellington, 1982; 'In the Forest of Dream', Moet & Chandon Art Foundation Touring Exhibition, 1990; '175° East', a Tasmanian/New Zealand photographic exchange, 1991; and 'Pacific Parallels - The New Zealand Landscape 1840-1990', which toured the United States, 1991-92. Anne Noble has continued the tradition of an extended photographic documentary in various series over the past decade. These have notably included that focusing on the Wanganui River (1980-82), which flows some 180 miles through New Zealand's North Island, to more recently 'Song .. . without words' (1989-90), a contemplation of the beauty of the natural world and its poetic silences. Unlike the dark views of the river, white dominates this constructed tableaux of swans. In the convent series she devel- oped at the cloistered Tyburn Convent in London during 1987-88, Noble treated light with particular emphasis as a metaphor for both divine illumination and the sanc- tifying power of prayer. As Anne-Marie Davison points out in her article on 'In the Presence of Angels' in Art New Zealand (no.63, 1992): NEW ZEALAND ANNE NOBLE Top: left to right Amonastic cell, Veil of a novice Bottom: left to right Aplace setting in the refectory, Wing of St Michael the Archangel (from 'In the presence of angels' series) 1988, printed 1993 Four gelatin silver photo- graphs of Tyburn Convent, London,19x12.6cm (each) Collection: The artist Noble's photographs suggest, with gentle seductiveness, the mystical quality of lives suspended between temporal and spiritual worlds. Each gesture recorded has its signifi- cance enhanced by its ritualised repetition suggestive of a mysterious reality beyond the visible. From the panoramic format of the Wan- ganui views, the artist took her preferred use of black-and-white photography to serve aspects of the austere, ritualised life of a particular order of nuns. The sensibility of the panoramist here continues in the frieze-like 93 placement of the images when on display. We move from one spare Haiku-like frame to another, glimpsing the frugal meal, the unadorned bedroom, the space for 'listening silence' of a nun engaged in private prayer. Anne Kirker