What’s On
Going Live!
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Hand-washing
Poetry can help.
The Gallery is closed to help stop the spread of Covid-19 but we are digitally open 24/7.
All our staff are mucking in and working hard to bring you uplifting and reassuring engagement with great art across all our digital channels.
Please connect, follow and subscribe and engage across our digital channels. Stay strong, be kind, kia kaha whanau.
Notes
Girls in a factory by Denis Glover
Kirsty Mathieson, our Administration and Business Support team leader reads 'Girls in a Factory' by Denis Glover.
It's perfectly timed at 21 seconds - just right for washing away those nasty viruses.
Frances Hodgkins review
Writer Margaux Warne had this to say about our Frances Hodgkins exhibition in the April issue of Artbeat. Sadly the exhibition is off-limits at the moment, but we are working hard on ways of bringing it to life online.
Update from director Blair Jackson
Kia ora koutou. Hello.
I want to let our supporters and art lovers know what we are doing in these difficult times, and how you can still find moments of relief and escape through art. Like much of the world, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū is temporarily closed to our visitors and our staff. Like many of you are experiencing in your own lives, we’ve needed to figure out new ways of working, staying connected as a team, and working out what we can offer and ways that might help us to engage, inspire and connect you with great art and ideas.
Dunedin by Edith Howes
Today Gallery Director Blair Jackson, sometime resident of Dunedin, reads the poem Dunedin by Edith Howes.
That completes one week of lockdown, but hands still need washing thoroughly.
Olaf, a painting by Leo Bensemann
This poem by Denis Glover is a direct response to a painting now in the Gallery's collection. It is kindly read by his grand-daughter Pia Glover.
Keep scrubbing those hands.
Rain Rain
Edward Ogle performs Rain Rain Go Away
I don't know about where you are, but in Christchurch today we really do have rain rain. This is a tricky one because we really need that rain, but I also need a walk round the block this afternoon!
This one is only 18 seconds long, but you'll be smiling for at least two extra seconds when it ends, so it will still work very nicely as a timer for your hand-washing .
A student flat in a Christchurch winter
Some more verse to support hand-washing. This poem, inspired by Philip Clairmont's Fireplace, was written and is read by Jane Simpson. From the collection Tuning Wordsworth's piano (Interactive Press, 2019)
On the conversion of daylight into distances infrequently travelled
Poet, critic and curator Greg O'Brien wrote this poem after happening upon Pip Culbert's Pup Tent while visiting the Gallery in 2016.
But there is more to it than that, because our own curator Peter Vangioni then hand-printed the poem and it was published in a limited edition by Kowhai Press. You can see pictures of this exquisite publication below.
Greg has kindly read the poem while we are closed and we add it to our growing collection of poems to wash your hands to - or just to listen to for pleasure.
Keep on washing
Hand-washing remains the best thing we can do. Here's another poem against which to time your ablutions. Douglas MacDiarmid reads his own poem 'Daylight'. He wrote the poem and created the painting, Hills from Annat, in 1946.
Hand-washing
As we all know, one of the best ways to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is washing our hands. For the last week or so, our wonderful librarian Tim Jones supplied all the bathrooms at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū with poems by New Zealand poets to make the recommended 2-minute handwashing sessions pass a little more bearably.
Now we are all working from home, we'll try to keep this going, starting with a reading of On First Looking into Chapman's Homer by John Keats, the poem behind Michael Parekowhai's sculpture. Tim himself is the reader.
Press play and start washing.