Curator's Overview
Telecom Prospect 2007: New Art New Zealand
On taking up the post as Senior Curator/Manager Curatorial Programmes at City Gallery Wellington in August 2005 the first project assigned to me by Director Paula Savage was the third exhibition in the ‘Prospect’ series. I accepted the baton with a touch of trepidation, knowing what a much-anticipated and boisterously critiqued project it was. The parameters of the exhibition are refreshingly open—work needs to be made by New Zealand artists (resident in NZ or overseas) and date loosely from 2004 onwards. This timeframe conveniently synchronised with my arrival back in New Zealand after having been based in London for twelve years. A deep immersion into contemporary New Zealand practice ensued; looking at work, meeting with a raft of artists, writers, critics, curators and collectors across the country, reading, and combing online archives. While this is a solo curatorial project, my decisions have been influenced and enriched by conversations with peers, and I hope the exhibition itself can form a continuation of this dialogue, thrown wide to include visitor responses.
Research also involved coming up to speed with how the ‘Prospect’ series has evolved and how it sits within the recent climate of exhibitions and projects generated in public, dealer and artist-run spaces. It was also important to respond to critical feedback from the previous two incarnations, and look at what could be extended, where focus could shift. This has resulted in the production of a substantial print catalogue and an expanded offering of public programmes, enabled by much appreciated support from Creative New Zealand and The Chartwell Trust.
I remain dubious about whether any single exhibition can accurately define or embody a ‘zeitgeist’ or be a comprehensive summary of all current New Zealand practice, or even if this kind of impulse is particularly helpful. One of the strengths of the ‘Prospect’ exhibition series is that it changes its curator and structure each time. I am acutely interested in every work in this exhibition, and I am very aware that my selection of works is subjective. Other people would have made very different shows, but one of the valuable features of each ‘Prospect’ is how it acts as a catalyst for a broader examination of, and discussion about, contemporary New Zealand art.
The shape of the show:
As research continued, questions started to compound one on top of the other: is there a renewed interest in Abstraction within current practice? How do current investigations differ from, or build upon, the legacies/strategies within international Modernist Abstraction and New Zealand twentieth century paths of enquiry, to produce a contemporary take on such loaded territory? What methods are being used—both in terms of conceptual mapping and physical making processes? How are formal Abstract vocabularies rubbing up against and overlapping with figurative marks, objects and images? How useful is it to separate discussions about the abstract and the figurative? How would radically different works—from the visceral to the mathematical, relate to one and other?
This questioning soon spread to other thematic territories—the plethora of re-workings of objects and imagery from popular culture; the stuff that surrounds us in everyday life: domestic objects, company logos, hip hop tracks, the contents of our grandmother’s jewellery box, to instructions and training manuals. The essential nature of work utilising these sources is the isolation and re-configuration of the root material—which is sometimes very subtle and sometimes so radical that the initial catalyst is not evident. How do these works encourage us to re-consider our lived existence and give us insight into other ways of thinking about how we view and comprehend these objects, images and systems?
From here I veered into murkier territory, looking at the darker cousin of our more ‘banal’ definition of the everyday: altered states of reality, dreamscapes, surreal and absurd conglomerations of the real and the un-real, flights of fancy, wild propositions. The gothic underbelly of New Zealand contemporary practice has been well documented. Within ‘Telecom Prospect 2007’ the gothic is met head on by unnervingly sweet-toned imagery, both equally disconcerting.
The three thematic strands that comprise the backbone of the exhibition Quiet Riot contemporary abstraction, A Return to the Real—a re-configuration of the everyday and Parallel Multiverse—augmented reality and altered states do not occupy separate physical spaces. The most concentrated cluster takes place in Gallery One where the work is predominantly non-representational, but works using an abstract vocabulary spread through other galleries (such as Michael Morley’s paintings and Simon Denny’s sculptures in Gallery Three). Equally a number of works in Gallery One could be discussed in terms of the everyday (such as Seung Yul Oh’s rumbling large cardboard box, or Miranda Parkes’ video of a flickering fluorescent light fitting).
There are a number of collaborative projects in the exhibition—artists working with artists (such as Rachael Rakena and Brett Graham, David Hatcher and Cindy Bernard), architects who make collaborative video works (Elvon Young and Davor Popadich), artists working as collectives (e.g. The Association of Collaboration and et al.). Some works will develop during the exhibition, some will invite active interaction or participation from visitors (Kim Paton and The Association of Collaboration), some will seep outside of the Gallery and into the Civic Square (Gregor Kregar’s Matthew 12:12 live installation in late March) and further into the city (Daniel Du Bern’s street poster works).
The thematic clusters are not hermetically sealed. Like any attempt to define or summarise, these categorisations can rupture and spill. In structuring the exhibition in this way I am keen to encourage thinking about relationships between works; points of departure and connection.
It is not until all works are installed within the space that an exhibition starts to breathe and develop its own dynamic. Conversations with (and between) artists deepen. This evolution is exciting to witness. I hope that for visitors the exhibition sparks discussion, questioning, covetousness, and in some cases antipathy (after all, not every work will be a favourite!).
On behalf of all the team at City Gallery Wellington I extend sincere thanks to all of the artists participating in the exhibition, lenders of work, and to colleagues both inside City Gallery and externally who have been so generous in enabling this ambitious project to take shape. Equally, a huge thanks to the sponsors and supporters who have placed their ‘shoulders to the wheel’, we thank you most sincerely.
We extend a very warm invitation for you to visit the exhibition and share with us your thoughts. Keep an eye on this website for news about the rich line-up of public programmes and keep a look out for the print publication which will be published in April 2007.
Heather Galbraith
Curator of 'Telecom Prospect 2007' and Senior Curator/Manager Curatorial Programmes