5 4 3 2 1: Auckland Artist Projects

MEDIA RELEASE 11 JULY – For Immediate Use

5 4 3 2 1: Auckland Artist Projects

A rare opportunity to see artists installing new works at Auckland Art Gallery arises in the coming week. Five contemporary Auckland artists have created installations inspired by the building and its collections. The project was conceived as a curtain call for the gallery before it undergoes a milestone $90 million development in which all but the heritage sections are demolished and replaced.

Grey Lynn artist John Reynolds pays homage to the gallery’s collection in Four Walls, Three Layers, Two Marks, One Light. In his signature style, Reynolds spraypaints the three-tiered system for naming works; artist, title and medium directly onto the gallery walls. He tags with two metallic silver markers, aerosol and pen, to create a cavalcade of thrown voices looming in a darkened room lit by a single bulb. (Installing 15-20 July)

Seung Yul Oh, of Mt Eden, exposes the gallery as a living, breathing entity which supports the art works and people within. This large scale installation features internal pipes and ventilation shafts animated by subterranean sounds of flowing air and water, bringing to life the climate control systems so critical to the care and presentation of the collection. (Installing 17-20 July.)

Lisa Reihana, of Pt Chevalier, responds to the gallery's history by restaging the 1836 purchase of the Auckland isthmus - Tamaki Makau Rau, or Tamaki of a Hundred Suitors - by Sydney trader Thomas Mitchell for 1,000 lbs tobacco, pipes and muskets. An ironic trade in light of today's Maori health statistics. In 1883 a small corner was lopped off Albert Park for the city art gallery, library and municipal offices. "Real estate is a fascinating thing, everyone wants it - you're a winner if you profit from it," Reihana says. (Installing 17-18 July.)

Sandringham artist Peter Madden examines the gallery’s role in defining history by selecting which art is ‘important’. Madden takes to old gallery catalogues with a scalpel and glue, sifting through the past to sample favourite elements and rearrange them in beautiful but ambiguous collages which challenge the viewer to revise their own assumptions. (Installing 15-20 July.)

Mt Eden artist Andrew McLeod selects work from the collection and expands on the tradition of ‘artist’s choice’ exhibitions by including his own digital prints. Through the popular visual language of digital media, his domestic interior views examine emotions such as those surrounding public ownership of artworks. (Installing 19-20 July.)

A wide range of sound and performance projects will accompany the exhibition.

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5 4 3 2 1: Auckland Artist Projects – Public programmes main gallery 22 July 2006 till closing

Sunday 27 August 3pm – Artist’s talk

Lisa Reihana & Peter Turei

Join artist Lisa Reihana and historian Peter Turei as they discuss Lisa’s work Tamaki of a Hundred Suitors

Sunday 10 September 1pm – Performance project

Tahi Moore & Simon Denny

A movie that isn't really good, but is o.k.

Artists Simon Denny and Tahi Moore present an exploration of performed activities and familiar materials, reconsidering our relationships with actions and objects.

Sunday 24 September 1pm – Sound project

James Gardner

Join composer, Concert FM producer and 175East director James Gardner for a discussion of Alvin Lucier's Music on a Long Thin Wire, a work that is seminal in the history of contemporary sound and music and was first shown at the Auckland Art Gallery in 1984.

Sunday 1 October 1pm – Performance project

Plains

Plains is a gathering of some of Auckland’s top names in contemporary electronic music who will perform together in the spirit of the “Tape Loop Jam” sessions that experimental musicians and sound artists presented in the Auckland Art Gallery in the 1970s using reel to reel machines.

Sunday 8 October 1pm – Artists’ talk

Andrew McLeod & Seung Yul Oh

Join artists Andrew McLeod and Seung Yul Oh as they discuss their work in the exhibition.

Sunday 15 October 1pm – Curators’ talk

Ngahiraka Mason & Andrew Clifford

Join Indigenous Curator, Maori Art and guest curator, Andrew Clifford on a walk through the exhibition.

Sunday 22 October 1pm – Performance project

Daniel Malone Floor Piece

Daniel Malone's performance Floor Piece will continue his engagement with both physical and metaphorical structures of value and power.

Sunday 29 October 1pm – Performance project

Joyoti Wylie

Multimedia artist Joyoti Wylie helped start the rm3 artistrun space, which has been through several incarnations and addresses and is now Rm103. Like a bird mimicking machine sounds, she uses poetry and voices to explore multiple identities. Her performance will reflect on the constantly changing face of galleries.

ENDS

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