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
Notes
Paint, Pin, Re-Pin, Repeat
Some of our staff have been helping Christchurch Arts Festival 2013 with the Fly Me Up To Where You Are: Tiffany Singh project.
Collection
Saskia Baetens-Van Gils Haec olim meminisse iuvabit
The title of this work is from Virgil's Aeneid, book 1, line 203 and may be translated as 'Perhaps this too will be a pleasure to look back on one day'.
Collection
Peter Roche Untitled
It is with sadness that Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū acknowledges the passing of Auckland artist Peter Roche (1957–2020). After graduating from Elam School of Fine Arts in the late-1970s, Roche became known for his impactful performances undertaken in collaboration with Linda Buis. By the 1990s, he had developed his practice to produce vibrant light-based sculptural installations and performative drawings. Across his works, there is a sense of dynamic motion; a kinetic energy that reflects the connection he saw between his art and life. Underpinning his work were themes relating to machines and technology, concerns about surveillance and the role of state, and the boundaries of public and private worlds. Roche was selected for several international festivals, including the Australian Sculpture Triennial (Melbourne, 1981), the Paris Bienniale (1982) and the first Gwangju Biennale (1995) in Korea. He exhibited widely throughout his career and is represented in collections across Aotearoa, including this one. I will always remember the performance by Roche that I experienced at ‘Symposium 2000: An International Conference on Post-Object Art in New Zealand’. After signing a waiver at the door we were ushered into a gallery with the artist, and a chainsaw. When he started the machine, the roar was exhilarating and I still recall the pungency of the petrol fumes. There was a metal chain attached to the chainsaw handle and Roche slowly swung it into action until it was hurtling around him in a circle, his body the only anchor point. It was terrifying and the audience quickly retracted to the edges of the space. I remember shielding myself behind the crowd, thinking that if it slipped from his grasp, someone would lose a leg. With its dramatic red circles and the swift, firm pressure of the artist’s hand, this untitled lithograph from 2011 is for me a representation of the centrifugal force in that performance. It asserts the necessity to take risks in art and in life – to live life to the fullest, as Roche did.
—Melanie Oliver, Curator, August 2020
Collection
Julia Morison Net
This lithograph was made while Julia Morison was artist in residence with printmaking specialists Muka Studio. The title Wayzgoose: Net refers to the old practice of providing a Wayzgoose – a dinner, entertainment or outing offered by a master printer to their workers to mark the end of summer and transition to the season of working by candlelight. Morison uses the term here to consider how the Muka Studio project is a celebration of printmaking and artists. Wayzgoose: Net is a discrete work alongside the series of Wayzgoose lithographs that join together to form a larger, interconnected set. It was made as an experiment to work out the imperfections of the lithographic stone and the irregularities or chips on the edges that had become its patina; a network of intersecting lines that starts as a loose regular weave and becomes an intricate, tangled mesh.
(Die Cuts and Derivations, 11 March – 2 July 2023)
Collection
Wayne Youle The Saviour
In the weeks and months that followed the devastating earthquake on 22 February 2011, many Christchurch people looked in vain for a ‘hero on a white horse’ to lead the city out of crisis. Galloping creakily to nowhere, Wayne Youle’s riderless Saviour punctures the notion of a knight in shining armour. Instead, it emphasises his belief that this city’s salvation lies in the hands of ordinary people: all those who stayed – through choice or necessity – and contributed to the recovery in countless, unsung ways.
(Unseen: The Changing Collection, 18 December 2015 – 19 June 2016)
Notes
Repairs start on Christchurch Art Gallery
Repair work has started on Christchurch Art Gallery, with the re-levelling tender that will relieve stress in the building's foundations having been awarded.