Denis O’Connor
Lucken’s Alphabet
4 July - 9 August 2025
Lucken’s Alphabet explores the affinities of language and text to an image. The exhibition takes this theme from Denis O’Connor’s collaborations, translations and encounters with poets for over forty years.
Each letter of the English alphabet prefaces a word that is engraved and matched with an image on the slate’s front. On the reverse side is the line or stanza of verse that enhances, haunts and teases both the enigma of the image, and the duplicity of the word.
The provenances of the slates are the roofs of heritage status architecture in Tāmaki Makaurau. The poets range across broad territories and diverse sensibilities. Song lyrics make a guest appearance, as do found objects.
Lucken's Alphabet, 2025
pigment on Welsh slate
250 x 200 mm
carved Catskill Mountain slate, pigment, wax
260 x 335 mm
carved Catskill Mountain slate, pigment, wax
250 x 170 mm
pigment on Welsh slate
200 x 250 mm
carved Catskill Mountain slate, pigment, wax 265 x 250 mm
carved, pigment on Catskill Mountain slate
170 x 155 mm
carved Welsh slate, pigment, wax 195 x 250 mm
carved, pigment on Catskill Mountain slate
240 x 255 mm
pigment, wax on Welsh slate
245 x 195 mm
carved, pigment on Catskill Mountain slate
175 x 240 mm
carved Catskill Mountain slate, pigment, wax 260 x 190 mm
pigment, wax on Welsh slate
240 x 260 mm
carved, pigment, wax on Catskill Mountain slate
240 x 170 mm
pigment, wax on Welsh slate
295 x 250 mm
carved, pigment, wax on Welsh slate
200 x 250 mm
Welsh slate, pigment, wax 300 x 250 mm
carved, pigment, wax, Catskill Mountain slate
160 x 230 mm
pigment, wax on Welsh slate
200 x 260 mm
carved, pigment, wax on Chinese slate
400 x 190
pigment, wax on Welsh slate
260 x 220 mm
U for Unsaid, 2024
carved, pigment, wax on Lake District slate
195 x 155 mm
carved, pigment, wax on Welsh slate
250 x 300 mm
carved, pigment, wax on Catskill Mountain slate
255 x 230 mm
pigment, wax on Welsh slate
190 x 250 mm
carved, pigment, acrylic, gloss on Catskill Mountain slate
255 x 135 mm
carved, pigment, wax on Chinese inkwell
180 x 120 mm
carved, pigment on Lake District slate
variable sizes
ink on paper
510 x 410 mm
Lucken's Alphabet, 2025