archivedestruct and Homecoming

David Clegg, 'archivedestruct', Litmus Research Space,Massey University, Wellington

Louise Menzies: Homecoming

TWO NEW EXHIBITIONS AT THE PHYSICS ROOM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

archivedestruct: Christchurch 2006
David Clegg
19 July – 12 August 2006

Opening preview: Tuesday 18 July 2006, 5.30pm

archivedestruct: Christchurch 2006 is an ongoing documentation project using audio and image recordings from the urban environment that are presented in the gallery as an interactive information space. A large table is provided where users can examine the archive as it reorganises and renews itself in response to its new location. Centered on the moving body, the recordings function as a scanning device that can activate memories and imaginative responses to everyday events that are otherwise transitory or discarded.

archivedestruct began in Wellington during Clegg’s Litmus Artist Residency at Massey University. It then travelled to the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, earlier this year and now makes its way to Christchurch.

David Clegg is a New Plymouth/Wellington-based artist who has exhibited in New Zealand and abroad since the 1980s. Recent exhibitions include The Imaginary Museum, Christchurch Art Gallery; Come-in: Interior design as a contemporary art medium in Germany, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth; and The Imaginary Museum, Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Showing in the okokok series:
Homecoming
Louise Menzies
19 July – 12 August 2006

Opening preview: Tuesday 18 July 2006, 5.30pm

Louise Menzies’ practice has a strong conceptual focus, often melding ideas of duration and action with touches of sentimentality. For her exhibition at The Physics Room, Menzies follows through on such traditions with the light heartedly confrontational and rather romantic act of flying her own message in the sky above us. Taking the ubiquitous form of the banner as a starting point to explore her perceptions of Christchurch, the city she lived most of her life in, here Menzies offers a personal message to the town that once famously failed to host the Dalai Lama after his expressed concern and due refusal to disembark after a strong sense of “bad-vibes”.

Banners surround us; from sports events to protests, from weddings to expos, banners are an ever-present form, boldly communicating a multitude of messages and ideals. Menzies uses the banner for its potentiality as both a communicator and an aesthetic object. From the city’s Port Hills, she documents via video her own airborne banner secured only by strings, floating high above the city. Here the banner becomes the object and message of this temporary gesture from the artist to the city and the confines of the gallery at once. In consideration of her surroundings, Menzies proposition is one of generosity and hope.

Recent projects from 2005 include a conversion on a hotel apartment balcony, a place to gather and watch the city at dusk; and the first Sparkling Duets evening, a series of performances where couples perform music together (which continues this year).

Menzies graduated in 2005 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Massey University and has exhibited throughout the country. She has been a board member of Wellington artist-run-space Enjoy Public Art Gallery since 2003 and currently works as the Litmus Projects Manager for the School of Fine Arts, Massey University.

ENDS

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