‘My sister, my self’ is a balancing act by one of New Zealand’s renowned sculptural performers. Like many of Parekowhai’s sculptures, this one pays tribute to something ordinary – concrete seals found in suburban front yards. But this South Pacific seal is playing with one of modern art’s most famous ‘ordinary’ objects – the bicycle wheel Marcel Duchamp attached to a stool in 1913 and described as a ‘readymade’. It’s not the first time a version of Bicycle wheel has appeared in Christchurch. In 1967 an exhibition of Duchamp’s works was toured to the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, meeting fierce controversy and even censorship. (Brought to light, November 2009)

One of Christchurch Art Gallery’s major acquisitions in 2007, My Sister, My Self is a dazzling balancing act by one of New Zealand’s most renowned sculptural performers. Like many of Michael Parekowhai’s sculptures, this one pays tribute to something very ordinary – the concrete seals balancing balls on their noses that can be found in suburban New Zealand front yards. On the nose of this seal, Parekowhai has balanced a copy of one of the most famous ‘ordinary’ objects in modern art – a bicycle wheel which the artist Marcel Duchamp attached to a stool in 1913 and later described as a ‘readymade’.

(Label from 2007)