Composition for Two Planes uses Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū’s base isolation system as a framework to think about fluidity, the potential for movement, and the notion of staying with something difficult or troubling. The base isolators were installed under the Gallery after the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes; by decoupling the building from the ground they allow a slow, rolling movement during an earthquake. A common way to depict anticipated movement is through a choreographic or musical score, a set of instructions for performers to interpret. Adopting the idea of the score here, Ella Sutherland speculates on the Gallery’s seismic future, how it might move with any turbulence, suggesting this could be conceptual as well as physical movement.

(Die Cuts and Derivations, 11 March – 2 July 2023)