Michael Parekowhai Cosmo 2006. Woven nylon substrate, pigment, electrical components. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, the Jim Barr and Mary Barr Gift 2011. Reproduced with permission
Michael Parekowhai Cosmo 2006. Woven nylon substrate, pigment, electrical components. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, the Jim Barr and Mary Barr Gift 2011. Reproduced with permission
This exhibition is now closed
Once upon a time, there was a massive rabbit...
...and his name was Cosmo.
Michael Parekowhai's Cosmo was given to the Gallery in 2011 by Wellington art collectors Jim Barr and Mary Barr. They wanted to contribute something 'big and joyous' to the Gallery's post-earthquake reopening celebrations.
Like many of Parekowhai's works, Cosmo encourages multiple and contradictory points of view about local history. Is he a cute bunny or a noxious pest? A kindly character or a symbol of colonial expansion? Predator or prey? Friend or foe? His ears are cocked as if he's listening for something; alert both to danger and to opportunity.
Parekowhai's giant rabbits have been shown all over the world, from Canada to Korea, Lithuania to Australia. This one's just popping up here for a few weeks as part of the Gallery's Outer Spaces programme, but you'll be able to see him again this summer during the Gallery's reopening exhibitions.
Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū is increasingly reliant on its community and supporters like Jim Barr and Mary Barr. So last year our Foundation launched TOGETHER to help build a nationally significant collection for the Gallery – a collection of art that tells the world a little about Christchurch through this time.
When we reopen this summer, we'd like you there from the start. Pop into any of the stores along New Regent street to find out how to join TOGETHER.
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Date:
April – May 2015 -
Exhibition number:
997
Related reading: Outer Spaces, exhibition-997
Exhibition
Michael Parekowhai: Chapman's Homer on New Regent Street
29 April – 22 June 2015
Christchurch's favourite bull can now be found on New Regent Street.
Notes
A Well Timed Care Package
One of the best-timed gifts my family and I have ever received arrived at our home on Mt Pleasant in May.
Notes
Chase the blues away
The first day back at work after a holiday is always a bit rubbish isn't it. And today is no exception, particularly when you add to the general post-festive blues the new layer of plaster dust and earthquake-related detritus that this particular break generated.
Notes
Care Package (Part 2)
So yesterday I wrote how the Christchurch Art Gallery had just received a bodacious post-quake care package, which looks like this.
Notes
Holloway Press 1994-2014
Last chance to view the Holloway Press exhibition at Central Library Peterborough this week so if you are in the neighbourhood and like beautifully printed, designed and hand-crafted books then make sure you head along.
Notes
Sian Torrington Call Out
Christchurch Art Gallery is excited to be working with Wellington-based artist Sian Torrington on a site-specific sculptural installation that will combine ideas, images and materials that relate to living in Christchurch now.
See below for a message from Sian to find out how you can get involved.
Notes
Outer Space programme sees Canterbury arts graduate exhibit work in Showhome
The Gallery's latest exhibition in the Outer Spaces programme, Showhome, has opened in Christchurch, featuring the disconcertingly 'perfect' works of recent University of Canterbury graduate Emily Hartley-Skudder.
Notes
Worcester Boulevard exhibition extended as publication developed
The popularity of Reconstruction: Conversations on a City has led to the exhibition being extended until 14 October, and the development of a publication.
Notes
The inner binding now on display at the library
If you've not been down to the Central Library Peterborough yet now's a good time to do it.
Notes
(Way Out)er Spaces
We're pretty pleased with what we're achieving with our Outer Spaces programme, but it's always good to see what else is out there. And I do mean 'out there'...
Notes
The ghost of studios past
In preparation for the next issue of Bulletin, Gallery photographer John and I have been out photographing some of the local artists who will be taking part in Rolling Maul when we reopen.
Interview
Silent Patterns
When we asked Tony de Lautour to produce a new work for the Bunker—the name Gallery staff give to the small, square elevator building at the front of the forecourt on Montreal Street—he proposed a paint scheme inspired by Dazzle camouflage. Associated with the geometric near-abstraction of the vorticist movement, Dazzle was developed by British and American artists during the First World War to disguise shipping. It was a monumental form of camouflage that aimed not to hide the ship but to break up its mass visually and confuse enemies about its speed and direction. In a time before radar and sonar were developed, Dazzle was designed to disorientate German U-boat commanders looking through their periscopes, and protect the merchant fleets.
Senior curator Lara Strongman spoke with Tony de Lautour in late January 2016.
My Favourite
Peter Stichbury's NDE
Anna Worthington chooses her favourite work from the Gallery collection.
Article
Sparks that fly upwards
Curator Felicity Milburn remembers five years and 101 installations in a gallery without walls.