Ed Bats: But Today It's Different

Ed Bats adopted a pseudonym during their days as a graffiti artist, covertly painting large scale murals on streets around Aotearoa and across Europe.

Bats’ latest exhibition sees the artist present a suite of paintings incorporating collage elements alongside the familiar hard-edged abstraction and patched surfaces of his recent works.

“The exhibition title borrows from a line that appears in the first prose poem of William Carlos Williams' 'Spring and All'. A little book bound in blue paper, 'Spring and All' was first published in 1923 and dedicated to Williams' friend, the painter Charles Demuth. At a time when many sought renewal after the destruction of the First World War and the uncertainty and fear that followed it, Williams' book announced a vision for the arts that threw off the cultural artefacts of past, and directly addressed the present moment's imagination.”

Pōneke based historian and writer Ryan Anderson has written a text to accompany this exhibition, which encompasses the poetry of William Carlos Williams, the philosophy of Jacques Derrida, and the musicology of Mark Fisher. The full essay is available via Page Galleries' website.