Keeping Time

20 June 2008

Exploring the moment when past and present collide, Keeping Time considers how history, memory and tradition frame and colour our experience of the world. Drawn from the Gallery’s permanent collection, the works in this exhibition measure time, but also preserve it, documenting our journey towards the future and the baggage we pick up along the way.

Taking centre stage is Denis O’Connor’s monumental limestone sculpture The Gorse King. This 33-piece, semi-autobiographical work brings together an intriguing group of objects including classical columns, beehives, railway tracks, a sundial and a fragmented kneeling figure.  “With them, O’Connor uncovers a rich seam of densely layered imagery, from childhood memories and the Central Otago landscape to ancient history and twentieth century art,” according to Curator Felicity Milburn.

Also included in the exhibition are five stunning Marian Maguire lithographs re-imagining Homer’s Odyssey in the context of the South Pacific, Michael Shepherd’s Dead Letter Mail, a series of painted envelopes ‘posted’ from the past to enigmatic and elusive addresses, and William Dunning’s waxwork-like Colonization Triptych, in which Giovanni Bellini’s 15th century Transfiguration of Christ is transformed into a tableau of significant moments in Māori/Pākehā history.

Keeping Time will be at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu until 31 August 2008.

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