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
Neil Pardington Large Mammal Storage Bay #1, Canterbury Museum
For a large, intensive photographic project that he called The Vault, Neil Pardington used his camera to see what discoveries could be made in the hidden storage spaces of museums and art galleries throughout New Zealand.
This assemblage of taxidermied beasts was found in a storeroom at Canterbury Museum, kept in safekeeping while unneeded for display. All facing the same direction, it’s almost as if they’re waiting for their moment to escape.
(Beasts, 2015)
Collection
Tim J. Veling Corner of Tuam and Durham Streets, Christchurch, 2011, from Adaptation, 2011 - 2012
Collection
Pieter Hardimé Still Life with Flowers in a Basket
As well as being enjoyed for their superb decorative qualities, Dutch still life paintings were intended to be reminders of the beauty, brevity and fragility of life. An arrangement of tulips, anemone, nicotiana, jonquils, morning glory and oriental poppies, this work is attributed to the Antwerp-born Flemish painter Pieter Hardimé, who lived at The Hague from 1697.
The painting arrived from Windsor, England as an unexpected and welcome gift, shortly after the 2011 earthquakes. It was given in memory of Kathleen Muriel Whiteley (1904–1949), who had historical family ties to Christchurch, from the estate of her husband Albert, whom she married two years before her death in 1949.
(Treasury: A Generous Legacy, 18 December 2015 – 27 November 2016)
Collection
Tim J. Veling Latimer Square, Christchurch, 2012, from Adaptation, 2011 - 2012
Tim J. Veling's photographs of post-quake Christchurch are studies in memory and transformation. From a body of work titled Adaptation, this nocturnal image reveals the strangeness of the transitional city, not least its moments of surprising, eerie beauty.
(Unseen: The Changing Collection, 18 December 2015 – 19 June 2016)
Collection
Ivy Fife 69 Worcester Street
Ivy Fife directs the eye towards the red brick building, designed by local architect Cecil Wood and completed in 1928, home to Digby’s Commercial College in Worcester Street. Fife’s vantage point is her own rental accommodation in St Elmo Courts, a 1930-built apartment block that stood on the corner of Hereford and Montreal Streets until the 2010–11 earthquakes, opposite the old Canterbury College where she was a lecturer at the School of Art. Below, archetypal inner-city flats form a scruffy barricade between the refined Georgian-revival secretarial college and her elevated apartment.
(From Here on the Ground, 18 May – 17 November 2024)