Exhibition
Hidden Light: Early Canterbury and West Coast Photography
2 February – 25 August 2019
Alfred C. Barker Sarah Elizabeth (Lizzy) Barker c.1861. Glass plate collodion negative. Collection of Canterbury Museum (1944.78.255)
Uncovering the remarkable, largely unseen work of early New Zealand photographers.
Hidden Light is an exploration of an often overlooked aspect of our artistic past. This exhibition highlights the contribution of pioneering photographers at work in nineteenth-century Te Waipounamu. Spectacular landscapes by skilled amateurs and professionals join powerful images of tangata whenua, settlers and mining scenes. Unseen work by a small number of early women photographers is also included. This exhibition is accompanied by a superb new publication produced by the Gallery.
- Curator: Ken Hall
- Exhibition number: 1060
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Travers's Station, Lake Guyon by William T. L. Travers
Join curator Ken Hall as he discusses William T. L. Travers' photographs at Travers's Station, Lake Guyon in Hidden Light on the first floor.
Please note new start time of 12noon.
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What is ‘dark matter’? For theoretical physicists it is matter that cannot be directly observed but whose existence is nevertheless scientifically calculable – productively present yet simultaneously invisible. In a similar vein, the everyday phrase ‘dark matter’ describes objects, conditions and situations that harbour unease or trauma. Trauma that is often concealed, repressed, or buried. Both definitions are active in Ann Shelton’s mid-career review exhibition Dark Matter, and they provide a rich point of entry into this compelling collection of her photographic work. These are photographs that bristle with intensity and refuse to let their subjects die a quiet archival death.
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Te Puna o Waiwhetū Christchurch Art Gallery has a long-standing tradition of curating exhibitions of emerging and early-career artists. We do this in order to contribute to the ecology of the local art world, as well as because – quite straightforwardly – we’re interested in the practices of artists at all stages of their careers, and would like to bring the work of outstanding younger artists to wider public attention. The Devil’s Blind Spot is the latest in this ongoing series, but unlike earlier exhibitions, it’s concerned with a single medium – photography.
Exhibition
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Commentary
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To Māori, the colour black represents Te Korekore – the realm of potential being, energy, the void, and nothingness. The notion of potential and the presence of women are what I see when I peek at Fiona Pardington’s 1997 work Moko. And I say peek deliberately, because I am quite mindful of this work – it is downright spooky. Moko is a photographic rendering of a seeping water stain upon the blackboard in Pardington’s studio, taken while she was the recipient of the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship in Dunedin in 1997.
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Notes
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Commentary
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— Joanna Paul
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