Shannon Te Ao installation launches new moving-image series

New moving-image series launches with installation by Shannon Te Ao

Fresh from representing New Zealand at the Biennale of Sydney, Wellington-based artist Shannon Te Ao is presenting his moving-image installation Follow the Party of the Whale at the Adam Art Gallery from 27 May.

This is the first of three one-work installations brought together as RELOAD: Kirk Gallery Series 2014. Te Ao’s installation will be followed in July by a provocative video ‘lecture’ by Berlin-based artist, Hito Steyerl, Is the Museum a Battlefield?

Third in the series is a specially commissioned installation featuring the video Collector’s Edition Glitch by Auckland-based artist, Eddie Clemens. This uses the Adam Art Gallery’s architecture as a prop for, and a feature in, a work that montages scenes and outtakes from various movies by and about James Cameron.

Follow the Party of the Whale is a two-channel video projection that uses the strategies of performance art to reflect on the fate of the Māori prophet leaders Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi and their followers, during their two-year incarceration in Dunedin after removal from their pacifist community at Parihaka in Taranaki in 1881.

This is one highlight in a busy year for the artist, who will be included in a group show at the forthcoming Edinburgh Festival and is working on a catalogue featuring essays on three of his recent videos about to be published by the Physics Room in Christchurch.

What: RELOAD: Kirk Gallery Series 2014 featuring:
Shannon Te Ao, Follow the Party of the Whale, 27 May–29 June
Hito Steyerl, Is the Museum a Battlefield? 4 July–10 August
Eddie Clemens, Collector’s Edition Glitch, 15 August–21 September
Where: Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington
Gate 3, Kelburn Parade
When: 27 May–21 September
Tuesday–Sunday, 11am–5pm (closed on Monday)
Free entry

Further information can be found at www.adamartgallery.org.nz

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