Bulletin Summer Christchurch Art Gallery December 2008 — B.155 Te Puna o Waiwhetu February 2009 1 Bulletin B.155 Summer Christchurch Art Gallery December 2008 — Te Puna o Waiwhetu February 2009 Two cyclists use the custom-designed bikes that form Anne Veronica Janssens's Les Australoïdes installation in the Gallery foyer. Front and back cover images: Fiona Hall Medicine bundle for the non-born child (detail) 1994. Aluminium, rubber, plastic layette comprising matinee jacket. Collection of Queensland Art Gallery, purchased 2000. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant. Courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney 2 3 Contents B.155 4 DIRECTOR'S FOREWORD A few words from director Jenny Harper 5 EXHIBITIONS PROGRAMME What's on at the Gallery this season 6 FIONA HALL: FORCE FIELD Paula Savage on one of Australia's finest contemporary artists 15 LOOKING INTO FORCE FIELD Two personal responses 16 SHOWCASE Recent gifts to the Gallery's collection 18 WUNDERBOX A collection of collections from the collection 26 THE ART OF COLLECTING Four artists show us their personal collections 30 LET IT BE NOW Six emerging Canterbury artists 34 WHITE ON WHITE Exploring the myriad possibilities of white 42 OUTER SPACES Richard Killeen takes his art out to the street 44 LONG WIRES IN DARK An interview with MUSEUMS Alastair Galbraith 46 ARE YOU TALKING TO ME? Jim and Mary Barr on collecting 47 PAGEWORK #1 Eddie Clemens 50 TE HURINGA / Pākehā colonisation TURNING POINTS and Māori empowerment 56 SCAPE 2008 Looking back at some of the Gallery projects 58 MY FAVOURITE Film-maker Gaylene Preston makes her choice 60 TIME-LAPSE Installing United We Fall 62 NOTEWORTHY News bites from around the Gallery 64 STAFF PROFILE Martin Young 64 COMING SOON Previewing Rita Angus: Life & Vision and Miles: a life in architecture Please note: The opinions put forward in this magazine are not necessarily those of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu. All images reproduced courtesy of the artist or copyright holder unless otherwise stated. 5 Director’s Foreword Jenny Harper Exhibitions Programme DECEMBER, JANUARY, FEBRUARY 2008 — 2009 Welcome to a new look for the Christchurch Art Gallery Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts in 1997, was recently selected FIONA HALL: FORCE FIELD TE HURINGA / TURNING POINTS A CONSTANT FLOW OF LIGHT Bulletin. This is the first edition to be published in our to be one of two artists representing New Zealand in the Until 15 February 2009 Pākehā Colonisation and Māori Fifty years since Colin McCahon began his new format, and it is an exciting development for us. Fast prestigious Venice Biennale in 2009. Renowned Australian artist Fiona Hall Empowerment renowned work Tomorrow will be the same approaching its thirtieth birthday, Bulletin has certainly come Replacing our long-running and highly successful I See Red explores the intersection of nature and 19 December 2008—15 February 2009 but not as this is, this focus exhibition a long way since it was first published in 1979. Our creative exhibition is White on White, an examination of the artistic culture with a deft touch and a vivid, A gathering of paintings from some of from the collections brings together partners Strategy Design and Advertising first became involved possibilities of white — a ‘realm of unlimited artistic potential’ unpredictable imagination. This spectacular New Zealand’s best-known modern and remarkable works spanning the life of this survey, which includes works from the 1970s in 1998 and, with them at the helm, the magazine has received according to early twentieth-century Russian abstract painter, historical artists, this exhibition travels great modern painter, and points to the through to the present day, shows how she a pathway from early European contact, ‘afterlives’ of his art in the works of two numerous awards and accolades. This new look represents Wassily Kandinsky. This exhibition has been created with transforms ordinary objects into complex settlement and colonisation through to contemporary artists. the next stage in the evolution of our Bulletin, and we hope children in mind and seeks to ask pertinent questions about the and evocative works of art. contemporary perspectives by twentieth- that you are as thrilled by it as we are. nature of white through a number of interactive components Collection Galleries Exhibition organised and toured by the and twenty-first-century artists. Bicultural Where our spring season of exhibitions explored the that we hope will be a hit with our younger audiences — as Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, viewpoints are provided by curators Peter ways in which artists deal with time, this summer a theme of well as all visitors who are young at heart. Australia and City Gallery Wellington, Shaw and Dr Jo Diamond. OUTER SPACES A programme of artworks in spaces beyond collecting can be detected through many of our exhibitions, Also in the Gallery this summer are two exhibitions New Zealand. William A. Sutton and Ravenscar Galleries the traditional exhibition galleries. Featuring and many of the articles in this magazine. Indeed, we hope focusing on the work of New Zealand artists, past and present. Touring Exhibition A, B and Borg Henry United We Fall by Sara Hughes in the foyer that this revamped edition of Bulletin is, in itself, something Te Huringa / Turning Points comes to us from the Sarjeant Galleries of a ‘cabinet of curiosities’. Gallery Te Whare o Rehua. Looking at Pākehā colonisation WHITE ON WHITE and The Gathering by Richard Killeen on Catalogue and iPod Audio Tour available Until October 2009 Worcester Boulevard. Taking up the collecting theme, we are excited this quarter and Māori empowerment, this exhibition makes use of the New for children and families, White on to host a major exhibition by Fiona Hall, one of Australia’s most twin viewpoints of the show’s curators, one Pākehā and one WUNDERBOX White is the thought-provoking replacement prominent and well-respected artists. Organised by Sydney’s Māori, to stimulate debate. The third exhibition in the Gallery’s Until 15 February 2009 TWINSET to I See Red. Includes new works by A rapid-fire programme of new video Museum of Contemporary Art and City Gallery Wellington, young contemporaries series, let it be now focuses on the Wunderbox brings together secretive contemporary artists Steve Carr and Sean art on the twin screens in the foyer. This Fiona Hall: Force Field comes to us fresh from a highly work of emerging New Zealand artists. Featuring a number spaces, model worlds and eccentric Kerr, and works by Ando Hiroshige, Eileen season featuring videos by Terry Urbahn successful run in both its previous venues. It is a compelling of artists whose works lead an ephemeral or temporary collections from some of New Zealand’s Mayo, Jude Rae and Peter Robinson from (December), Seung Yul Oh (January) and survey of the artist’s work over the last four decades, from her life, the exhibition also raises some telling questions about best-known contemporary artists, including the permanent collections. Jae Hoon Lee (February). early photography to video work resulting from her recent the way public galleries contain and collect contemporary Judy Darragh, Andrew Drummond, Bill Hammond, Neil Pardington, Francis Burdon Family Gallery botanical expeditions. The exhibition provides fascinating works of art. Family worksheet available insights into the artist’s intense and imaginative investigation Finally, we are delighted to include in this edition a new Upritchard, Terry Urbahn and Ronnie SUBSONIC van Hout. of our relationships with the natural world and the pressures work of art created especially for Bulletin by the holder of The summer Subsonic programme features THE COLLECTIONS a variety of sounds from Alastair Galbraith placed upon it by politics, trade and consumption. the Olivia Spencer Bower Award for 2008, Eddie Clemens. Touring Exhibition Gallery C and Matt De Gennaro, Bekah Carran and Wunderbox is a home-grown exhibition, taking its title Previous recipients of this award include Séraphine Pick, Jim iPod Audio Tour available From Petrus van der Velden’s thundering Paul Sutherland. from seventeenth-century cabinets of curiosity or Speers and Robert Hood, all of whom are now represented Mountain Stream, Otira Gorge of 1893 to Robert Hood’s Samuel Butler (My Rifle, wunderkammer. These attempts by sixteenth- and seventeenth- in the Gallery’s collection — indeed, Pick will be the subject LET IT BE NOW 12 December 2008—8 March 2009 My Pony and Me), filmed in the South Island century European collectors to document the world as it of a major survey at the Gallery in 2009. We are delighted landscape 110 years later, the first-floor opened up before them were filled with exotica, becoming to have the opportunity to display a unique new work such This year Christchurch Art Gallery presents six contemporary artists who analyse the collection galleries hold a rotating selection almost portraits of the world in miniature. The works within as this in Bulletin, and we hope that this will develop into a psychology of materials and the possibilities of treasures from the Historical, Twentieth this particular ‘cabinet’ are predominantly from the Gallery’s regular feature. Watch this space in future issues for more Jim Speers Didn't Get to of space. Each artist employs a unique Century and Contemporary Collections. permanent collection, and it’s fantastic to have this opportunity new work and fresh ideas. Sleep Last Night (detail) 2004. Acrylic, vinyl and approach, yet the end goal is the same — Collection Galleries to display recent acquisitions like Francis Upritchard’s fluorescent light source. that of setting up a dialogue, an encounter Collections catalogue available idiosyncratic Husband and Wife which, along with other Jenny Harper Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu.