B.

This exhibition comprises work by five New Zealand artists for whom space is both a visual and a conceptual concern. Although diverse in appearance, and representative of the varied nature of contemporary sculpture and installation practice, the works in Uneasy Spaces will explore the fragmented and often uncomfortable relationships that exist between the artwork, the viewer and the mental and physical space between. Engaging with and redefining that space, the artists explore the boundaries of physical and electronic space, provoking the viewer to consider a variety of ideas, including the relationship between solid and void, the manipulation, expansion and contraction of space, the tension between electronic worlds and 'real space', and parallel concepts of space (physical space versus experiential, remembered and imaginary spaces).

In recent years, the explosion of media technology has cultivated a new frontier - electronic space. This is a zone full of contradiction, where a television set or computer monitor can occupy only a small physical area yet provide entry to an almost boundless world of images and information. The potential for interactive programming has allowed electronic media artists the opportunity to present works which react to and touch the viewer in ways that conventional art cannot. Installation art not only operates between the physical and the imaginary, but also moves in time and space, provoking associations and reactions that harvest our memories, our present experiences and our sense of the future. This conflict between the obvious 'here and now' reality of a physical object and its indefinable relationship to other times and places creates a challenging and often uneasy tension.

Fiona Gunn has established a reputation for perceptive and evocative work which articulates the space it occupies and engages the viewer in an often multi-faceted dialogue. A lecturer in Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury, Gunn combined with renowned British digital artist, Simon Biggs, in 1997 to create a collaborative work for the High Street Project Gallery.

Italian-born Chiara Corbelletto has lived in Auckland since 1981, and consistently explores the relationship between form and light in her sculptural practice. Her background as an interior designer and architect may explain her desire to play with the dynamic between her materials and the empty volume they are placed within. Corbelletto was part of the finalist exhibition for the 1999 Eighth Annual Wallace/Visa Gold Art Awards which was recently displayed in Christchurch.

Born in Tokyo in 1957, Kazu Nakagawa studied furniture-making at the Hatano Polytechnic before coming to New Zealand in 1987. Although he continued to make furniture-based objects, he moved from the functional towards a celebration of form itself, creating immaculate objects which occupy and intensify the surrounding space. Nakagawa has said previously that his aim is to make works which concentrate on what is 'beyond the edge' of the object itself. Sean Kerr has long been developing interactive artworks which, through the use of electronic technology, react to, and engage with, their audience. Using a combination of sound and image, his works characteristically combine a direct, and often unsettling, interaction with the viewer with shrewd tongue-in-cheek humour. Kerr, who currently lectures in Interactive Media at the Wellington Polytechnic School of Design, has also produced several short videos and films.

Uneasy Spaces will also include a work by emerging Auckland-based artist Brendan Wilkinson, whose miniature tableaus of everyday life explore both real and imaginary worlds. Wilkinson's astute and playful work was included in the Govett Brewster Art Gallery's Leap of Faith: Contemporary New Zealand Art exhibition in 1998.

Felicity Milburn

This exhibition was held at the Robert McDougall Contemporary Art Annex in the Arts Centre.