People who lives in glass houses, however...

...should not throw stones. There was a hell of a lot of art on the walls of this institution when it opened in 2003. And whatever words you might have used to describe Te Papa's opening hang in 1997, 'airy' sure wasn't among them.

New institutions are especially prone to this kind of over-catering. So keen are they to prove the worth of their new walls, they pile them high with art. The risk is one of indigestion. As former Te Papa concept leader Ian Wedde wrote, back when he was doing weekly art criticism for The Evening Post, we want institutions that serve art, not stuff it into us.

All of which sets the stage nicely for the latest installation of the Christchurch Art Gallery's permanent collection, in the building's high-ceilinged ground-floor spaces.

Brace yourself.

What you're looking at is the most ambitious 're-hang' to be conducted since staff moved the more than 6,000 items in the collection from the old McDougall to the new Christchurch Art Gallery back in the early 2000s. In fact, what you're looking at is exactly that ambitious. Over the past five weeks, the Christchurch Art Gallery's registrars, technicians and exhibitions team have worked hammer-and-tongs to move all of those objects from their usual first- and second-floor stores to other parts of the building, including this improvised storage space in what is usually prime public real estate (ghosts of the interrupted Bensemann show here...).

The reason, as Jenny explains in her 'alas too soon' letter, is that the fourteen-storey Gallery Apartments, our own local 'leaning tower', are to be demolished scarily soon, and those apartments stand right beside and above the parts of our building where collections are usually stored. (They're also pressed right up against the wall of the office in which I'm typing this entry – but don't worry about me...) So to 'minimise risk', new racks and special floor fastenings have been built, and everything's been moved.

I know for a fact that the behind-the-scenes exhibitions teams take as much pleasure in seeing a newly hung show as we curators do. For that reason, I'm guessing it's been a strange and oddly unsatisfying task to have to laboriously move and fastidiously secure all these artworks without an exhibition opening or public viewing to look forward to.

Yet in its speed, scale and thoroughness, not to mention the bizarrely provocative juxtapositions it has thrown up, the relocation deserves some public glory. While I don't recommend that anyone inflict this style of hang on the viewing public during opening hours any time soon, there's no question that – under the circumstances, and given the aim in mind – this is a very good hang.