Collection
Closed circuit

Glen Hayward Closed circuit

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)

Collection
W. H. Wynn-Williams

James Elsbee, Thomas Selby Cousins W. H. Wynn-Williams

Hand-painted photographs appeared briefly as a portraiture service in early Christchurch. Welsh-born lawyer William Henry Wynn-Williams settled in Canterbury in 1860 and became active in community life. Serving on the Canterbury Provincial Council from 1865 to 1875, he was also founding vice-president of the Canterbury Society of Arts in 1880 and MP for Heathcote in 1881–84.

(Out of Time, 23 September 2023 – 28 April 2024)

Collection
NDE

Peter Stichbury NDE

There’s a strangely ahistorical quality to Peter Stichbury’s paintings. While his subjects are clearly contemporary personalities, the weight of the art-historical past stands behind his approach to portraiture. In this powerful image, a young woman is depicted with a thousand-yard-stare –has something has happened in the past that she has not yet come to terms with in the present?

(Now, Then, Next: Time and the Contemporary, 15 June 2019 – 8 March 2020)

Notes
Viva Sydenham

Viva Sydenham

It seems a lifetime ago that we combined with Gap Filler to launch the Gallery's first post-quake Outer Spaces project in Sydenham. 

Notes
Pop, tick, slap, snap...

Pop, tick, slap, snap...

And those are some of the sounds you'll hear inside the ArtBox, when you step up to the screens and trigger some of the sixty performances recorded by Phil Dadson and sonicsfromscratch as part of the Bodytok project... With the SCAPE Biennial launching tonight, Bodytok's now officially open for business.

Notes
Ping!

Ping!

That's the sound the colours are making at the corner of St Asaph and Madras, where the Christchurch Art Gallery/SCAPE ArtBox is now fully wrapped in its high-key Bodytok 'skins'. (Love that first hit of pink -- seen through Parsons, past Trusttum -- in the long view travelling west...)

Notes
Ouch

Ouch

That looks like it hurts...

Notes
Now you're talking

Now you're talking

The vinyl skins are going on, down at our new Outer Space in the ArtBox complex.

Notes
What's in the box?

What's in the box?

Nothing yet, and it looks very good that way.

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