Billy Apple

Aotearoa New Zealand / United States, b.1935, d.2021

Censure Realised, Brooke/Gifford Gallery Christchurch

  • 1979
  • Bromide black and white photograph, red ink, wooden door panel, wooden skirting board
  • Purchased with the support of Christchurch City Council's Challenge Grant to the Christchurch Art Gallery Trust, 2010.
  • Reproduced with permission
  • 970 x 610 x 5mm
  • 2010/007.a-c
  • View on google maps

In 1979, as part of a series interrogating the ‘white cube’ spaces of New Zealand dealer galleries, Billy Apple removed two additions to the architecture of Christchurch’s Brooke Gifford Gallery, a plywood panel and an extra piece of skirting board. These ‘improvements’, which restored the space to its original state, challenged the idea of the gallery as a given or neutral space, drawing attention to the importance of context. The photograph, taken by then-Gallery photographer Glenn Jowett, shows the ‘censured’ elements with the objects Billy removed placed on either side.

(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )

Exhibition History