Fresh from Walls

'The inexplicable and magical have always appealed to me.' When Don Driver was young he wanted to be a magician and there is 'magic' at work here. He transforms the mundane and imbues it with troubling subconscious associations. Although Driver is self-taught, and lives in the provincial city of New Plymouth, he has always pushed the barriers of convention in works that are uniquely of that place. In Fresh from Walls we are left to guess at meanings that might range from the humorous to the dreadful. As 'Walls' is a frozen food manufacturer, those gaudy 'op-shop' dresses might suggest differently flavoured ice-blocks. But what of the implied menace of the scythe and pitchforks, agricultural implements that could have more sinister uses? This assemblage is an arrangement of elements that have physical qualities of colour and texture, but they are also the detritus of our society, with their own histories and the attendant patina of age and use. In spite of his choice of materials and the visual pleasure that he finds in the stained, splattered and patched, Driver is also a classicist. Within his loose arrangements of cast-off materials there is an insistent drive toward balance and harmony. (from The Guide, 2001)

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