In most instances the gallery is more important than the art work it presents. Some exhibition spaces are just not conducive to the display of art; they either have too much light or not enough, are more visually interesting than the art on display or dead spaces that nothing can enliven, while some have a ambience that enhances certain art styles while detracting from others. Now Artshouse can work with or against an exhibition but in this case the art makes the venue disappear as our eyes feast on fine food for thought.

Wood presents large abstractions on unstretched square canvases pinned to the wall. They are intended to hang like hides as he references the earth we inhabit as being a skin; one that alters its colour and texture according to care or abuse, one that ages, is wounded, heals and rejuvenates. While viewing these intriguing works we make a subtle mind shift and begin to recognize terra firma as seen from above, from either head height or the permanently inhabited orbiting space station. Another shift of perception and we are no longer looking down but outward and upward to view a perilous, precious world from our hiding place under nature's detritus on the planet's floor. Then the walls of the hall drift out of the mind.

While wrestling with various thoughts, recognitions, hints and emotions fed to you by these canvases, take the time to step back and appreciate the surfaces themselves. Colours range from the exciting hot lava flow reds of Everlasting 2000  through the comforting soft pastel hues of Jarrahdale (sunset) 2000 to the mysterious cool watery blues of Spring Rain 2000. The textures demand tactile inspection as we see the battered canvas peeping out between wrinkled layers of medium. Just as we want to stroke the bark of a particularly impressive tree or the rough side of a sun warmed rock, so we are intrigued enough with these works to want to touch them. It is another form of communication.

Wood's works are inspired by forests surrounding his studio and seasonal changes to the landscape. He's also interested in the variety of ways humanity maps the earthscape including satellite imagery, aerial photography and survey maps. Electronic, photographic or symbolic geographical imagery involves defined reference grids. They are used as a guide to locating a small parcel within the larger image. More subtle grids are produced as a result of folding the larger image into a small parcel for storage. Wood's large canvases, folded into small storage parcels when new, retain these packaging creases to produce a soft grid-like effect when painted. The medium collects in or runs out of folds while creases cut through fields of colour or form the edge of a textured area. They act as reference points that guide our navigation through these inviting, exciting, churning surfaces.

Wood's displaying of Earth's skin like hides peeled from their owners is a pertinent reminder that skin it is a living organism, one that needs to be cared for during its continual evolutionary shifts and changes. If we ignore this, our host planet's hide may be hung out to dry sometime in the near future. Then the enclosing walls reappear.