Another Destination - Art Gallery exhibition
5 November 2007
Canterbury has a reputation for producing some of New Zealand’s finest artists and Christchurch Art gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu celebrates the vitality and originality of the contemporary visual arts practice with its latest exhibition Another Destination. Opening on November 16, Another Destination profiles the work of five artists who are graduates of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts. Artists in the show are sculptors Zina Swanson, James Oram, Rachel Brunton and Simon Lawrence and painter Francesca Heinz.
Curator Jennifer Hay says the exhibition which features installation art, video performance, sculpture, drawing and painting explores the artistic processes and concepts related to the community, the environment, biology and social constructs. “The artists are all working in different ways and using a wide range of techniques and materials which makes for a lively and varied exhibition,’’ says Hay. “Use of materials such as animal skins and objects found in nature such as seeds allows them to create new meanings and alternative viewpoints and hints at the many ways we view the world around us.’’ The title Another Destination explores the way the artists are mapping their own paths and departure points along the road to their own destinations. Rachel Brunton’s sculptures usually develop out of an analysis of a given space, Hay says “By shifting dimensions around and using technology, she manipulates the impact of her work on the viewer. Her interactive computer-generated drawing programme, stem parametro, creates swathes of sculptural lines that travel from one point to another. Based on algorithms, the patterns and repetitions of these crystallised forms evoke a sense of the physical and biological energy in all living matter. ‘ Stem’ implies the stem of a flower or a long narrow connective element, and ‘stemming the flow’. Here these connotations work in tandem with the many aspects of ‘parameter’.
For instance the work incorporates a family of curves, it is a dynamic system of causal factors that defines its appearance, and in computer science ‘parameter’ is a reference or value passed to a command or programme. Lines, tubes and smoky flourishes are created with the click of the mouse as each person who interacts with the work creates their own sophisticated doodles. Rachel Brunton says, ‘The use of digital tools offers new ways of interpreting, manipulating and visualising the world around us. Creating digital art using software as a medium enables response from the viewer, control of their surroundings and forms a direct connection to the art work'. Christchurch Art Gallery director Jenny Harper says Another Destination indicates the Gallery’s increasing and serious commitment of the art of the moment begun last year with the Out of Erewhon exhibition which featured artists who have strong connections to the region. “It exemplifies current contemporary practice in Canterbury and is a good opportunity to showcase emerging artists,’’ she says. Another Destination (Painting, sculpture and installation art) is at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu from 16 November 2007 until 16 March 2008. Admission free.
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