I've missed Christchurch Art Gallery. Ever since the first earthquake in September 2010, the gallery has somehow 'slipped through my fingers.' It was 'taken over' by Civil Defence and then the Christchurch City Council; and now it's closed again while the demolition of the apartment block next door takes place.
Unable to visit as often, I've taken to thinking about the gallery and the works that have colonised its spaces. And the exhibition that replays most often in my head, is "Force Field," a breathtaking show by Australian artist, Fiona Hall.

I remember it for the intricate workmanship (especially in the beaded exhibits) and the detail of each piece. I remember the sense of discovery with every corner turned, the wondrous concepts and ideas, the intricate displays with their tangles of light and shade.

It was like walking into some twisted little private museum where every exhibit is slightly left of centre, where some mad scientist has been fiddling with Nature to extraordinary effect. I especially loved Tender – a beautiful collection of birds’ nests created from shredded American banknotes.

Two huge glass cabinets contained an amazing array of nests from multiple species – each replicated in shredded money. The glass on one cabinet was printed with the Latin names of each species the nests were modelled on; the second cabinet was printed with scrolls of numbers - the serial numbers of over 3,000 one dollar notes that Hall shredded to create the work. I was dazzled.

Beaded fruit, the little aluminium 'sardine tins' intricately shaped into the Paradisus Terrestris series and the beautiful, bewildering Cell Culture collection - all strange and bewitching.
These visual snippets, hauled out of my own mental 'cabinets of curiosities,' have sustained and inspired me while the gallery doors have remained closed; and the simple act of remembering them again, makes me excited about the possibilities of future Christchurch Art Gallery shows.