The Obstinate Object: Contemporary New Zealand Sculpture

Feeling Obstinate?

24 February 2012

Gallons of fresh water, hundreds of tiny painted cardboard squares, dangling desks, metres of fibre optics, bales of hay, LED lights, countless stereo parts, 80s leather jackets and a whole lot of hot air (in a giant inflatable vinyl sculpture) are just some of the objects included in The Obstinate Object: Contemporary New Zealand Sculpture, a new exhibition on display at City Gallery Wellington from 24 February until 10 June 2012.

The exhibition of contemporary sculpture by New Zealand artists investigates the idea of ‘object-ness’; in an increasingly online world of virtual ‘likes’ and the twitterverse. These works highlight an interest in the act of making, exploring a return to the object in contemporary sculptural practice.

Curator Aaron Lister, “I started by asking what it means to have an object-based practice now, at a time when the worth and value of objects is under constantly scrutiny. We recycle, we digitise, we download - what does all of this mean for a medium that has its basis in the making of things? And also what does this mean for audiences encountering physical objects in real space and real time?”

The centerpiece for the exhibition is Don Driver’s 1982 installation piece Ritual, a large-scale sculpture consisting of ten 44-gallon drums surmounted by doll figures with goat-skull heads, set on a dray surrounded by hay. This work acts as a potential starting point for the exhibition; visitors are invited to ‘pick-a-path’ through the art works following various themes such as ‘Curses and Charms’ or ‘Ossuaries’ which are available on cards at the front desk.

First made in 1982 for the National Art Gallery, Ritual is presented here on sculptural terms, and in relation to contemporary artists and concerns. By far the oldest work in the exhibition Lister says in many ways it “feels the most contemporary, the most urgent. This is testament to Driver’s ongoing power and relevance for now, and for the future.”

The curators (Aaron Lister and Abby Cunnane) have searched out sculptural works that elbow their way into the gallery space, refusing to fit or perform, as we expect. The show includes several newly commissioned works by some of New Zealand’s most compelling artists, including Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Ruth Thomas-Edmond, Sian Torrington, Bekah Carran, Shane McGrath, Lisa Walker, Regan Gentry and Raewyn Martyn.

As Lister notes, “You would have to look hard to find traditional materials like bronze or marble in this exhibition, or see any plinths and pedestals. They are all lurking within this exhibition but often in reworked ways more suited to contemporary approaches to making art. In the same sense many of the traditional sculptural methods are here, you will see casting, modelling, carving, weaving etc, but they are often put to new ends or applied to unexpected materials. These traditional elements of sculpture are forced to perform differently.”

Interestingly the sculptural works often resist regular or traditional gallery display. Visitors will be invited to look inside the hidden spaces of the gallery such as a peek inside a storage cupboard (to discover Warkworth resident Glen Hayward’s carved wooden replicas of gallery paraphernalia) or to look up into the rafters and beams for Sian Torrington’s snaking installation of fabric and wool, or jeweller and artist Lisa Walker’s chain which renders the gallery into a giant building- sized brooch-like object.

The curators invite visitors to contemplate the Gallery’s front lawn (where one of Dunedin based artist Scott Eady’s objects can be found), as well as the front windows of the Gallery itself where they can see Fault, the permanent light installation by Bill Culbert and Ralph Hotere, which intervenes into the architecture of the building.

Meanwhile artist Regan Gentry, well-known for his outdoor sculpture, unveils McCahon Incarnation, a waterfall cascading from an upper gallery window with a pool of water collecting beneath.

The exhibitions features New Zealand artists who maintain their art practices overseas, including Alicia Frankovich, Francis Upritchard, Alex MacKinnon and Yuk King Tan.

However the provinces also feature highly with Bekah Carran’s bogan-flavoured investigation into a rock memorial of melted plastic, Cantabrian hunter Sam Harrison’s forms made of chicken wire frames, waxed and polished into recognisably traditional sculptural shapes; and Wanganui-based ceramic artist Paul Maseyk’s large vessels, based on traditional amphora which include A day in the life of Patrick Bateman and his ‘Fucked’ series of failed ceramics. While Napier artist Ben Pearce’s intricate body based sculptures of natural wood cover interesting territory about the physical effect making sculpture has on the bodies of individual artists.

“For an exhibition about sculpture there is quite a lot of other stuff: some video, performance, painting, ceramics, sound. That’s one of the interesting dimensions of this object-ness. It’s not confined to what we might conventionally consider sculpture. A lot of this work sits between sculpture and another medium,” adds Lister.

Performance based sculpture also features in the work by Trenton Garratt and Clinton Watkins (a sound performance happening simultaneously between the Engine Room at Massey University and City Gallery Wellington on Friday 24 February at 4pm), and via David Cross’s giant inflatable sculpture. The show also features documentation of Cross’s performance installations over the past ten years.

Beyond the physical space of the Gallery, the show also branches out into the streets of Wellington with a special publication and project The Active City Guide which has been led by City Gallery Wellington and produced by Wellington City Council and the International Arts Festival. It is a project which reaches across various agencies and institutions including The Dowse Art Museum, Te Papa, Performance Arcade, Massey University, Letting Space and The Wellington Sculpture Trust, to draw together the range of sculptural practices happening in Wellington during the Festival.

The Adam Art Gallery and the Film Archive have also collaborated on The Active City by screening a series of sculpture-related films. Information on all of these projects can be found in The Active City Guide.

As part of this exhibition, City Gallery have collaborated with the Wellington City Council in commissioning a new public sculpture for Glover Park by Wellington artist Shane McGrath. This sculpture will be unveiled in a few weeks time, promising to transform and invigorate the park setting.

The gallery acknowledges the generous role of the Wellington Sculptural Trust in supporting Regan Gentry’s McCahon Incarnation and principal sponsor forThe Obstinate Object: Contemporary New Zealand Sculpture, Ernst & Young.

RELATED PUBLIC EVENTS

The Obstinate Object Friday 24 February 12.30pm Artists’ Talk. Featured artists: Eddie Clemens, Regan Gentry, Brett Graham, Glen Hayward and Maddie Leach

International Curator’s Lecture - Exhibitions: making places by Hou Hanru Saturday 25 February 3pm

Watch This Space Saturday 10 March 2pm Footnote dancers create impromptu dance pieces in response to art works on display

Productive Bodies, Letting Space March 12-16 10am-12pm Observe Mark Harvey’s Productive Bodies public workshops in action in the Reading Room.

Documents on Sculpture
A series of documentary film screenings every Saturday during March at 4.30pm
New Zealand Film Archive, 84 Taranaki Street, Wellington. Free entry. For more information go to http://www.adamartgallery.org.nz/calendar/

The Obstinate Object Friday 13 April 12.30pm Artists’ Talk. Featured artists include David Cross, Ruth Thomas Edmond, Sian Torrington and Lisa Walker.

Bronwyn Holloway-Smith Friday 4 May 12.30pm Artist Bronwyn Holloway-Smith provides an illustrated lecture about her art practice.

Don Driver Symposium Saturday 26 May 1pm

The Making of The Obstinate Object Friday 8 June 12.30pm Free entry

The Obstinate Object: Contemporary New Zealand Sculpture artists are:
Bekah Carran, Eddie Clemens, Paul Cullen, Bill Culbert & Ralph Hotere, David Cross, Don Driver, Scott Eady, Alicia Frankovich, Trent Garratt & Clinton Watkins, Regan Gentry, Brett Graham, Glen Hayward, Sam Harrison, Bronwyn Holloway-Smith, Yuk King Tan, Maddie Leach, Alex MacKinnon, Raewyn Martyn, Paul Maseyk, Shane McGrath, Ben Pearce, Ruth Thomas-Edmond, Francis Upritchard, Lisa Walker, Rohan Wealleans, Wayne Youle and Seung Yul Oh.
www.citygallery.org.nz

ENDS

© Scoop Media