Beasts

Exhibition

Beasts

A generous, multimedia selection of animal-themed works, both lively and thoughtful.

Collection
Untitled (Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica)

Connie Samaras Untitled (Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica)

A seal breaks through the ice and begins oxygenating; slowly opening and closing her eyes as she fills her lungs with air. Weddell seals live and breed on the ice shelves around Antarctica, further south than any other mammal on the planet. They move between holes in the ice to hunt, and have been recorded holding their breath for up to ninety-six minutes. Connie Samaras made this video while on a residency in Antarctica. Like many of her works, it invites us to consider the two-way dependency of our relationship with the environment, the fragility of the body and our tenuous grip on survival.

(Te Wheke, 2020)

The images shown here are stills taken from the video.

Collection
Tuatara, Stephens Island

John Johns Tuatara, Stephens Island

Tuatara means ‘spiny back’ in Māori. This unusual creature is found only in Aotearoa New Zealand. There are two species of tuatara, the last surviving members of an order of reptiles that existed alongside the dinosaurs 220 million years ago. That isn’t the only unique thing about the tuatara: they have a light-sensitive ‘third eye’ beneath the scales on the top of their head; its purpose is still not completely understood by scientists.

(Beasts, 2015)

Notes
Zoology

Zoology

I'm pretty sure the kids at my daughters pre-school haven't seen Cai Guo-Qiang's Heritage, which was commissioned for his show Falling Back To Earth at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane last year.

Notes
The Mouse-trap by Petrus van der Velden

The Mouse-trap by Petrus van der Velden

This article first appeared as 'Cleverly caught' in The Press on 14 February 2014.

Notes
It's Showtime!

It's Showtime!

Today is Show Day here in Canterbury. Over at Canterbury Agricultural Park you can see thousands of animals being put through their paces or if you'd rather, you can look at some of these equally beautiful beasts from our collection.

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