Event Highlights: 4 February – 17 February
Welcome to Christchurch Art Gallery's eNewsletter. This is a dynamic time for the Gallery, with this fortnight marking the opening of Nature's Own Voice and the final days of Wunderbox, Fiona Hall: Force Field and Te Huringa / Turning Points. Be sure to get along and see these wonderful shows before they close their doors on 15 February. Gallery events include Waitangi Day celebrations, along with Latin dance workshops each Wednesday throughout February – come and try some new moves!
Toni Huata, seen here performing at the 10th Pacific Arts Festival in Pago Pago.
Photo: Qiane Corfield Matata |
Courtyard and foyer, free
Acclaimed Māori songwriter and vocalist Toni Huata performs in the forecourt as part of a varied line-up that includes a modern hāngi, two free film screenings of Vincent Ward’s Rain of The Children, poetry readings by Ben Brown and a kapa haka performance by Mareikura – Christchurch's only youth-focused professional kapa haka group.
See www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz/SpecialEvents/ for the full line-up.
7.15 – 8.30pm, foyer, free
In the lead-up to the Latin Dance Festival 2009, 2x4 Trust and Christchurch Art Gallery are proud to present the best Latin dance studios in Christchurch. Join them and try your moves in these fun workshops.
See www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz/SpecialEvents/ for workshop details.
Courtyard, 2pm – 3pm, free
Christchurch's finest brass and pipes bands line up to entertain you on a series of Sundays this summer. This Sunday – The Salvation Army Band.
6 February – August 2009
Nature's Own Voice focuses on plein-air painters – artists who work outdoors in an attempt to record the varying effects of differing light and weather conditions through direct observation.
Last chance to see
Richard Killeen Book of the Hook 1996. Acrylic on aluminium. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, purchased 2000 |
Until 15 February 2009
Wunderbox brings together secretive spaces, model worlds and eccentric collections from some of New Zealand's best-known contemporary artists, including Judy Darragh, Andrew Drummond, Bill Hammond, Neil Pardington, Francis Upritchard, Terry Urbahn and Ronnie van Hout.
Pākehā Colonisation and Māori Empowerment
Until 15 February 2009
An exhibition of paintings from the collections of the Fletcher Trust and Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui, Te Huringa / Turning Points charts a journey from early European contact and colonisation through to work by present-day New Zealand artists reflecting contemporary concerns.
Until 15 February 2009
Renowned Australian artist Fiona Hall explores the intersection of nature and culture, transforming ordinary objects such as sardine tins, videotapes and paper money into complex and evocative works of art. This spectacular survey includes works from the 1970s through to new works created especially for the exhibition.
Exhibition organised and toured by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia and City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand.
Justin Kerr Installation 2002. Mixed media |
Until 8 March 2009
This exhibition presents new work by six emerging New Zealand artists. These recent graduates unravel conventions and show us new aspects of contemporary art practice.
Generously supported by Coffey Projects.
Until October 2009
Keeping younger audiences in mind, and including a number of new works by contemporary artists, White on White is an exhibition brimming with the imaginative possibilities of white.
Generously supported by Chartwell Trust.
Wed 4 February
5.15pm, meet at the front desk, free
Filigreed tin plants sprout from polished, re-used sardine cans resembling small theatres and peep-shows in which we glimpse the mysterious and the forbidden. Rod McKay examines the stunning Paradisus Terrestris, Fiona Hall's most acclaimed series.
Note change of advertised programme.
Geoff Park’s talk Wild Scenes : Artists in the Preservation of the Indigenous will be scheduled at a later date to be confirmed.
Wed 4 February
6pm, Philip Carter Family Auditorium, 90 mins, free
This award winning documentary by Jennifer Baichwal follows photographer Burtynsky to China, as he captures the effects of the country’s massive industrial revolution and creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris. "This film lets us look at the impressive yet troubling scale of our impact. Everybody should see it!"
(David Suzuki)
Fiona Hall Holdfast 2007. Tin and aluminium. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney |
Wed 11 February
5.15pm, meet at the front desk, free
Extinct or endangered bird species are represented by disposable plastic chemical containers, animated by carved and cast resin beaks. Allison Fox discusses Hall's research into the politics of bird extinction.
Wed 11 February
6pm, Philip Carter Family Auditorium, free
This profusely illustrated lecture traces the patterns of light and darkness in Hall's art. Greg O'Brien will consider the artist's work as both exaltation and lament, the embracement of a world which she finds as perplexing and unnerving as it is beautiful.
Sponsored by The Press |
