Navy Museum Proud To Host Exclusive Kermadec Exhibition

8 November 2013

Navy Museum Proud To Host Exclusive Kermadec Exhibition

A group of artists who voyaged with the Royal New Zealand Navy ship HMNZS OTAGO to the Kermadec region two and a half years ago are bringing works inspired by the experience to the Navy Museum at Torpedo Bay, Devonport this summer.

The exhibition— Hands to Bathe—Imagining a Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary—opens on 29 November and runs until March 2014.

The artists—Gregory O’Brien, Bruce Foster, Robin White, John Reynolds, Phil Dadson, John Pule, Jason O’Hara, Elizabeth Thomson and Fiona Hall—were invited to travel on OTAGO’s Kermadecs mission by the Pew Charitable Trust, so they could document the extraordinary sights and wildlife of the remote area, Kermadec region, midway between New Zealand and Tonga and is home to whales, turtles, seabirds, fish and deep-sea marine life.

The exhibition title was inspired by a Navy tradition of stopping a ship in a warm part of the ocean and declaring: “Hands to bathe!” Ship’s Company then dive into the water for a refreshing swim. OTAGO stopped at the Tropic of Capricorn for the purpose.

“For the voyaging artists it came as a huge surprise and offered a few moments of exhilarating engagement with the immense, life-giving, all-encompassing ocean,” recalls artist Greg O’Brien.

The phrase inspired the artists to make numerous works, including Elizabeth Thomson’s deep blue wall-sculpture, Kermadec—Hands to Bathe and John Reynolds’ assemblage Hands to Bathe, which features dozens of tiny canvases upon which another naval expression, “Wakey Wakey Wakey” is written.

Navy Museum director David Wright is thrilled the museum is hosting the exhibition.

"It provides us with an outstanding opportunity to partner with the Pew Charitable Trust and the Navy in celebrating and protecting one of the world’s most delicate and pristine ocean regions,” Mr. Wright said.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum will run education programmes and other events.

“We invite viewers to think afresh about the world in which we live—with its vast oceanic spaces, its beautiful and strange plants, and the many myths and stories that surround us all,” Mr. O’Brien said.

ENDS

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