Office stationery defies gravity in light box exhibition

3 December 2013

Office stationery defies gravity in new Courtenay Place Park light box exhibition

Daniel von Sturmer is the latest artist to have his work showcased in the Courtenay Place Park light boxes. Von Sturmer's Production Stills will be on display throughout the summer and into early April. The series features photographs of collections of cast-off office supplies and recycled objects assembled in gravity-defying piles.

Uncomplicated images at first glance, the photographs invite a longer look, working against our instinctive understanding of physical forces and prompting questions about everyday digital manipulation. There is also a distinct element of tension and slapstick humour - the sculptures forever on the brink of an inevitable collapse.

Although appearing to conform to some of the conventions of advertising product shots, the collection of images offer no easy takeaway concept or proposition. Nothing is being pushed, and there is no message to receive, only questions to be asked.

"Daniel von Sturmer’s works use a collection of found objects and recycled materials to form improbable sculptural stacks. The works defy logical reading because they confound our everyday understanding of gravity, friction and balance. They invite the viewer to pause and consider what it is they are seeing, and how they may be seeing it" says curator Rob Garrett. "Von Sturmer's playful works have the potential to turn us into witnesses of our own senses."

New Zealand born von Sturmer studied at RMIT University and is currently based in Melbourne. He has exhibited at galleries around the world and was nominated for the 2004 Walters Prize. Daniel von Sturmer represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 2007; and has exhibited at numerous national and international public venues including the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden; the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Berlin and Auckland Art Gallery. Production Stills is a fantastic opportunity for Wellington audiences to see von Sturmer's latest work.

The exhibition is curated by Rob Garrett, who has an extensive background in public art. Garrett recently curated the 5th edition of Narracje (Narratives) with a series of temporary installations and interventions in public space, in Gdańsk, Poland and has curated numerous public art projects in urban spaces as well as city-wide public art plans and policies.

Production Stills will be on display in the Courtenay Place Park light boxes from 6 December 2013 - 6 April 2014.

The project is supported by Wellington City Council’s Public Art Fund.

ENDS

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