Kā Kaupapa o te Wā
What’s On
Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist
A rare opportunity to view the work of one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most adventurous and experimental modernist artists.
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.
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
Vivian Lynn Playground Series
Much of Vivian Lynn’s art was driven by her desire to challenge and disrupt the established order. Here, she has used the analogy of a children’s playground to critique the repressive society she saw around her in 1970s Aotearoa New Zealand. The figures playing here are not young and the games they play are not carefree. Instead they are grotesque automatons, imprisoned within a system of conformity. It’s an unexpectedly dystopian vision, in which people follow the roles assigned to them without question or agency; mere cogs in an endlessly spinning wheel with no possibility of escape.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- 21 July 2024)
Collection
Grant Lingard Swan Song
The term ‘swan song’ originated with the ancient Greeks and their belief that a dying swan sang beautifully. It has come to describe a final act before leaving. Grant Lingard conceived this sculpture while dying from HIV/AIDS. It was assembled three months after his death according to his written instructions by his partner Peter Lanini and a group of Grant’s art school friends for the Swan song exhibition at Sydney’s First Draft Gallery in 1996.
The towels, sheets and pillowcases arranged over these drying racks are more than one person or family would typically use, their number suggesting the regular changes required by a long illness. As elegant as ever, the minimal white procession is funereal, but it also documents private acts of loving care for all to see.
(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )
Collection
Glen Hayward Red Form
Works of art aren’t as well behaved as they used to be. Once upon a time, they stayed where they were put, hanging obediently off picture rails or perching politely on pedestals. Since the arrival of the Duchampian readymade, however, many require a second glance to distinguish them from the world around them, as everyday objects are pressed into service in new, perspective-tilting contexts. There’s another kind of work too, the type Glen Hayward is known for: the readymade’s stealthier cousin. Meticulously, even obsessively, crafted to resemble objects you wouldn’t give another glance, these unobtrusive double agents aim to blend in, adding a subversive frisson to the gallery experience.
(Unseen: The Changing Collection, 18 December 2015 – 19 June 2016)