Art/Photography: Desiree Dolron

We stumbled upon the work of Desiree Dolron literally by chance, during a weekend visit to the Pataka Museum in Porirua, which usually displays Kiwi, Australian or Pacific art, or works linked to local communities.

It would have been a highly satisfying visit anyway, with Rick Maynard's stunning exhibition of photographies about contemporary Aboriginal life in Australia and Joanna Margaret Paul's lovely drawings and watercolors. But when we entered the small room where Desiree Dolron's series about Cuba, Te Di Todos Mis Suenos, was displayed, we became breathless with surprise.

Only real art gives you this kind of emotional reaction.

Mounted on large, glossy, canvas-sized frames, the photographs are like carefully constructed paintings that capture the real sense of the place while rendering it intensely poetical, as in the simple, shabby interiors of "Cerca Concordia":



and "Cerca Industria":



Or in the photo of eerily empty streets caught at unspecified times of the day, as in "Cerca Villegas":



Since the exhibition I have searched her work and I know the Guggenheim in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London have some in their permanent collections. It is amazing that a Porirua, NZ art collector had some of these beautful and very pricey works, too, and lent them to Pataka.

Her art is very varied: each series shows a different approach and technique, as well as a specific sense of what the series is about. I very much want to see her Xteriors series, influenced by classical Dutch art of the 17th century:


Xteriors VII

But all of her photographs appeal to me. Hopefully, I will stumble upon more of her works casually scattered around the world.