"To love and be loved in return, or to see and be seen," is a statement that describes an interaction between beings capable of transmitting and receiving. The message is sent; I love or I see, and a space is defined by the time it takes for an answer. This is waiting time, a state between. How long to wait before the love is unrequited? How long to wait for the return before you realise you are alone?" Ronnie van Hout, May 2014.

In this exhibition four familiar figures, half child/ half adult, are caught between transmission and reception, twisting in a purgatorial present, attempting to lighten themselves and ascend to heaven while a looping video plays out the abusive verbal jousting of characters from the 1998 film, The Boys. The mirroring screens become the entrance to a perpetual hell. To Love, and be Loved in Return sees van Hout continue his reflections on the life of an artist, and its attendant cycle of exhibition and reception. His work is mostly situated from a position of being neither in or out, up or down, good or bad, going forward or back.

Born and raised in the South Island of New Zealand and now a long-term resident of Melbourne, Ronnie van Hout has been exhibiting since the early 1980s. Along with regular gallery and museum exhibitions he has completed a number of major public artworks including Comin’ Down 2013, a life-sized sculpture of the artist with one arm raised in salute, installed on a rooftop overlooking central Christchurch and Fallen Robot 2012, a large reclining robot commissioned for the front of The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, New Zealand. 

Recent and major solo exhibitions include The Way Home, I.C.A.N., Sydney, Australia (2014), Uncured, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2010), Who goes there, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, New Zealand (2010), I’ve Abandoned Me, Dunedin Public Art Gallery (which toured during 2003-2004). Recent group exhibitions include Dear Masato, all at once, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, VCA, Melbourne (2014), Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, (2013-2014), Play money, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne, Collective Identity(IeS): This is That Time, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery (LMCAG), Lake Macquarie (all 2013), Unnerved: The New Zealand Project, GOMA / Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (2010) and Postmodern New Zealand Te Toi Hou Āmuri Ki Aotearoa, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington (2007) 

Van Hout’s work is held in numerous public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand, Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand, Christchurch Art Gallery, New Zealand, Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, Wellington City Gallery, New Zealand, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. To Love, and be Loved in Return is Ronnie van Hout’s ninth solo exhibition with Darren Knight Gallery.

*image (left)
Ronnie van Haut
Paul, 2014
cast polyurethane, fibreglass, acrylic, clothing, wig, glass eyes, plastic, wooden table,
163 x 170 x 106 cm approx.
courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight Gallery