Kā Kaupapa o te Wā
What’s On
Made in the Pacific: A Collection of Tāoga
A selection of Pacific tāoga from the Canterbury Museum in conversation with contemporary artworks that highlight the continued strength in culture and traditional art forms.
Mark Adams: A Survey | He Kohinga Whakaahua
A comprehensive survey spanning the artist's career.
Ana Iti: Ngahere Behind a Pile of Metal
An immersive installation considering the legacies of deforestation and significance of kauri trees.
E tuwhera ana te wharetoi i kā rā e 7 o te wiki, 10am - 5pm
Ka tuwhera ki te 9pm i kā pō Wenerei
Open 7 days, 10am - 5pm
Late night Wednesday until 9pm
Uruka utukore, ahokore utukore
Free entry, free wifi
Collection
Ngahuia Harrison Aunty Reo
Working primarily with a 35mm camera, Ngahuia Harrison’s creates images that share narratives of her hapū related to wai (bodies of water). Her works consider the past and future histories of Ngātiwai landscape, utilising a Māori worldview of collectivity, co-dependence and reciprocity in community. Ngahuia says: “Te Wairahi was part of the same series Aunty Reo comes from. Aunty Reo is a cousin to my Mum, we connect through both my Nana and my Grandfather. But this is our connection on my Grandad’s side – our awa in Whananaki. I was photographing sites of significance in Whananaki at the same time as taking portraits of the Kuia from there, Aunty Reo is our eldest Kuia.”
The title for this series, E taria ana taku tinana ki te whai i te awa / My Body Will Follow the River, is taken from a whakataukī from Ngahuia’s iwi that talks about the importance of the sea, and how we, like our ancestral rivers, will always flow into the sea. In this region of Northland there are ongoing projects to clean up and restore the health of the rivers, and this photograph of Aunty Reo emphasises the connection of people, land and waterways.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022-21 July 2024 )
Collection
Jane Zusters Dave dresses up
Ōtautahi artist Jane Zusters works across painting, photography and ceramics. These recently acquired photographs capture Jane’s bohemian life and friends in Christchurch in the late-1970s, and precede a period when she was mainly painting. Tender and intimate, they give us a sense of warm friendships and a supportive community, despite the conservatism of Christchurch at the time, and they address queer histories, gender and identity. Portrait of a woman marrying herself challenges the expectation that women should marry, presenting instead a ceremony of self-care and respect. We see a truncated nude figure in the pool, staying afloat through curling her toes under the handrail; her friend breastfeeding her child; and another friend dressing up. While these works share the formal elements of her painting, such as strong composition, contrast or colour, they are also an important social record of the times.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Collection
Claudia Kogachi Ghost
Faced with the narrow romantic archetypes of popular movies, Claudia Kogachi decided to crack the genre open a little wider with paintings that reimagine iconic moments from popular films like Brokeback Mountain, Kill Bill and The Fast and the Furious. Here, she recreates the unforgettable pottery scene from Ghost, the 1990 supernatural romance starring Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore. Inserting herself and partner Josephine into the title roles, Kogachi disrupts the heteronormativity Hollywood typically promotes, proposing a new kind of love story. Her wide-eyed stand-ins lack the glamour of their cinematic counterparts, but arguably represent something more authentic.
(Dummies & Doppelgängers, 2 November 2024 – 23 March 2025)