Delaney Davidson: Time Has Gone
Delaney Davidson: Time Has Gone
On 6 December 2017 Delaney Davidson performed the final show of his New Zealand Magic Lightbox tour at the Gallery to an enthralled audience. Blending live music and film, Arts Laureate Delaney gave us a glimpse of a forgotten time – dusty highways, old Europe, the ‘new world’ of the US and New Zealand as you’ve never seen it before. The Magic Lightbox walked a tightrope between narrative and abstract, with Delaney beginning to let go of traditional song form and starting to move further out into the sound landscape.
Related reading: musical performance, Gigs at the Gallery
Commentary
Your Hotel Brain
We recently opened a new collection-based exhibition, Your Hotel Brain. Curated by Lara Strongman, it focuses on the cohort of New Zealand artists who came to national – and in some cases international – prominence in the 1990s. The title of the exhibition is a phrase drawn from Don DeLillo’s epic novel, Underworld, published in 1997. It gestures towards the way that pieces of information float through your mind, checking in and out, everything demanding attention, everything happening all at once – a metaphor for postmodernism in the 1990s and for the increasing slippage of context in the digital era. The 1990s were a time of great social and cultural change in Aotearoa New Zealand, set against a broader backdrop of globalisation and the rise of digital technologies. Artists, as ever, registered these cultural shifts early. We asked a number of people who were working in the arts at the time to recall their experiences of the 1990s.
My Favourite
The Collection
I hit browse and there it was. The collection. I had slowly built up both a resistance and a feeling of attachment to this collection. Stuffy musty rooms from 1986. Quiet and fresh white walls when it was raining outside. Sunshine on a book through the window on a late-winter afternoon. Christchurch. This collection I recognised instantly, and I felt the repulsion as well as the comfortable feeling.
Notes
One Hand Loose
Smoking twin-guitar free-form skuzz, metronomic neo-Kraut vamping, or loose-limbed hayriding hootenanny? One hand Loose is all of the above and more.
Notes
Remix Committee: We Need You!
We are looking for a small group of passionate taste-makers to join our ReMix Committee. Come and ensure YOUR voice is represented at Christchurch Art Gallery by working with our team to plan an event (and other activities) that is all about, and for, young people. We don’t want to tell you what you might like, we want you to tell us! You pick the theme, you pick the bands, you pick the performers, you pick the film, you pick the speakers.
Notes
Countdown to Fifteen
Fifteen is our birthday party (guess how old we are…) and it’s less than two weeks away! It’s also the opening event for Tony de Lautour’s US V THEM, which is our big winter exhibition. We asked curator Peter Vangioni and visitor programmes coordinator Amy Marr what they’re most excited about in the incredible line-up for this grand birthday bash.
Notes
Been to some lame ‘youth’ events lately?
Now’s your chance to help create a cool event for you and your friends!
The Mix is Christchurch’s Art Gallery bi-monthly late-night event – an interactive mix of art, music, film and good people. We want to run a Mix designed, curated and for under 18s – ReMix.
Notes
Gallery Happenings: Grayson Gilmour
In early March we were lucky enough to have the incredibly talented Grayson Gilmour performing at the Gallery, supported by the equally talented Purple Pilgrims and New Dawn. I love these gigs, but there is a lot of work to be done behind the scenes to make sure that, by the time the public walk in the door, the foyer is gig ready. The process normally feels like a long, slow marathon with a sprint at the final corner. So here’s a guide to how you too can get the NZI Foyer gig-ready in five (or six) easy steps.
