Exhibition
We Do This
12 May 2018 – 26 May 2019
Robyn Kahukiwa Tena I Ruia1987. Acrylic on canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery, purchased 1989
Ane Tonga Seta 2012. Metallic print on 4mm aluminium dibond. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery, gift of the Friends of Christchurch Art Gallery, 2017
Allie Eagle Self portrait 1974. Graphite on paper. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery, purchased 2012
A recharged contemporary hang to mark 125 years of women’s suffrage.
As Aotearoa New Zealand marks 125 years of women’s suffrage, we’ve recharged our contemporary collection spaces with a high-voltage new hang. Some works resonate with challenge, like Allie Eagle’s defiant 1974 self-portrait – made after spending a long day hanging paintings by her male peers – or Robyn Kahukiwa’s foot-stomping women’s haka, Tena I Ruia (1988). Others claim space more obliquely, with ambition, insight and self-deprecating humour. Spanning four decades, the new line-up highlights major pieces by such celebrated artists as Vivian Lynn, Julia Morison and Louise Henderson, and also introduces several recent acquisitions, including works by Areta Wilkinson, Francis Upritchard and Saskia Leek.
See all the works from our collection that are in this exhibition.
- Location: Contemporary Collections Gallery
- Curator: Felicity Milburn, Lara Strongman
- Exhibition number: 1059
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Contemporary Art Partner
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Tena I Ruia by Robyn Kahukiwa
Join visitor host Karin Bathgate as she discusses Robyn Kahukiwa's Tena I Ruia on display in We Do This on the first floor.
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Join volunteer guide Sara Newman as she discusses Blouse and Trousers for Olivia Spencer Bower on display in We Do This on the first floor.
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Julia Morison: Meet me on the other side
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Commentary
The World Tossed Continuously in a Riot of Colour, Form, Sound
One hundred and twenty five years ago, after years of political struggle, Aotearoa New Zealand granted all adults the right to vote by extending suffrage to women. To mark this anniversary, for this issue of Bulletin our curators have written about some of the Gallery’s significant – yet lesser-known – nineteenth and mid-twentieth-century works by women. Our intention is to make these paintings, and the cultural contribution of the artists, more visible in 2018.
Commentary
An Undeniable Promise
There is such a burden of expectation placed on Anne’s painting, and on the exhibition… itself. I feel, like many women painters that she is being asked to prove an undeniable promise. This is unfair.
Commentary
Representing Women: Ann Shelton’s Dark Matter
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.
