B.
Fresh from The Matrix
Behind the scenes
Right on time for the opening at 209 Tuam Street tonight of the Glen Hayward/Yvonne Todd combo White Collar, the courier's just dropped off a box of City Gallery's fresh-from-the-printer catalogues about Glen's work.
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The catalogue (which, I ought to parochially add, is part supported by Christchurch Art Gallery), documents the installation in Wellington this year of Glen's latest 'undercover' sculpture, a hand-carved and -painted recreation of the famous office cubicle environment from the opening scenes of the movie The Matrix.
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As WCG's Aaron Lister points out, "in the film, the cubicle doesn't really exist. It is part of an illusionary world designed to trap humanity within a dream state. In the making of the film, the cubicle used was no more real. Rather, it was a prop that looked like a cubicle, and likely no more functional than Hayward's wooden version. The cubicle you encounter in the show then is a replica of a replica of a replica, portraying something that never really existed."
![Glen Hayward, I don't want you to worry about me, I have met some Beautiful People, installation view (detail), City Gallery Wellington, 2013. Photo: Hamish McLaren.](/media/cache/c0/d8/c0d82f30f6cc6c16ecd1fb72b172aba7.jpg)
Glen Hayward, I don't want you to worry about me, I have met some Beautiful People, installation view (detail), City Gallery Wellington, 2013. Photo: Hamish McLaren.
In Christchurch, of course, Glen's play on reality and illusion looks interesting for other reasons too. Displayed in a temporary gallery that was formerly a real office environment, his phantom cubicle also resonates with the changing spaces of post-earthquake Christchurch, where many offices, vacated and demolished, can now be reconstructed only in memory.
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Glen will talking on Saturday at 209 Tuam Street , as will Yvonne Todd. She's on at 11; he, 12.