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
Exhibition
Sam Harrison: Render
Presenting new art from Christchurch, our Rolling Maul project series begins with a remarkable exhibition of sculptures by Sam Harrison.
Notes
And so farewell...
...to Justin Paton who has cleared his desk and is off to Menton for six months.
Collection
John Bevan Ford Spöring’s View of Motuaro (from the Endeavour, 1769)
This work from John Bevan Ford’s Ngā Tohunga Waka series shows a finely detailed kākahu hovering over Motuarohia in Pēwhairangi Bay of Islands. This is a motif Bevan Ford returned to often: “I suspend these cloaks over the land and sea to express the mana of those places and of the people who live there and have lived there.” The title refers to Herman Spöring, a naturalist on board the Endeavour during Captain Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific. In 1769 Cook landed at Motuarohia, imposing his name on ‘Cook’s Cove’, and renaming the entire area the ‘Bay of Islands’. In this work, however, Bevan Ford asserts the much longer Indigenous presence on the island, which has a rich history of Māori life and occupation.
Ngā Tohunga Waka ~ expert navigators
kākahu ~ cloak
mana ~ prestige, respect, authority
He Kapuka Oneone – A Handful of Soil (from August 2024)
Collection
Benjamin Green Sopwell House Near St. Albans, 1783
This print depicts New Barnes House, at Sopwell, near St Albans, Hertfordshire England. It is now the site of the Sopwell House Hotel, a luxury hotel noted for accommodating football teams immediately before big matches at Wembley Stadium.
It is not to be confused with nearby Sopwell Nunnery, sometimes known as Sopwell Priory, whose grounds were sold to Sir Richard Lee (1513–1575) at the time of the Dissolution. He reshaped and expanded the nunnery into a large Tudor house which fell into disrepair and which now exists as a picturesque ruin near the centre of St Albans.
Compare British Museum number 1852,0214.97
Collection
John Thomas Smith Landscape with Village
Compare British Museum number 1860,1208.79
From the series 'Twenty rural landscapes from nature', etched by John Thomas Smith and first published in 1793. See British Museum number 1860,1208.71 for details about this series.
Notes
Sticks and stones
The historic Canterbury Provincial Chambers are slowly being pulled apart piece by piece, labelled and placed in specially made crates seen here in the foreground.