B.

This was an exhibition of a large work titled Domain by painter Rob Taylor. Measuring fifteen metres long, it is a major work by Taylor which took sixteen months to complete between April 1978 and August 1979.

Born in Scotland in 1945, Taylor arrived in New Zealand in 1955. He studied at Dunedin Art School and in England. Domain grew out of Taylor's consideration of the nature of communication in art. In a letter to the then Director of the Robert McDougall Art Gallery, John Coley, Taylor states:

"As a thinking, creative person I could present a synthesis of my accumulated reactions to humanity's "Domain" we had dominion over; [which] we are free to exploit or to tend. I would state my view, cast my vote - present a well full of images and interactions - none nailed down to a fixed meaning, and then see how others would use it."

Taylor won the Ashburton Centennial Art Award in 1978 which afforded him the opportunity to commence the painting as well as give him financial security as he devoted much of the sixteen months to painting the large work. For his artist talk, Taylor invited the Ashburton Society of Arts and the Ashubruton Licensing Trust who presented the prize money, to acknowledge the role their patronage played in the creation of Domain.

Seven related paintings and ten works on paper were also exhibited to accompany the main work.