Sparks set to fly at Christchurch Art Gallery

A spectacular and immersive new project by one of New Zealand’s most conceptually inventive artists opens at Christchurch Art Gallery tomorrow.

Steve Carr: Chasing the Light is a large scale, six-channel video production of a fireworks display captured close up and in high definition by six drones.

Senior curator Lara Strongman says the project is Carr’s most ambitious yet and presents a new take on a crowd favourite.

“When you watch a fireworks display, you’re always at a distance and you’re always looking up. But what does it look like when you’re smack-bang in the middle of all that fire, light and smoke? Well, Steve has answered that question for us in spectacular fashion.”

Dr Strongman says Chasing the Light offers viewers an insight into the impossible, with a twist of nostalgia.

“The drones’ cameras chase the action from multiple viewpoints, placing the viewer in the middle of a beautiful and bewildering night-time adventure.

“It’s a new, even disorientating, experience, but at the same time there’s a sense of familiarity in the six large screens, which look like those from an old drive-in cinema. Like Steve’s previous films, this one re-contextualises a known event and presents it in a way that’s both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.”

Steve Carr: Chasing the Light is on display at Christchurch Art Gallery from Saturday 8 September 2018 to 10 February 2019. Entry is free.

Images

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rcxrp7a79x3excy/AACheHrj0CZw04fdqLt5DEG5a?dl=0

About Steve Carr

Steve Carr is one of New Zealand’s most conceptually inventive artists, working across moving image, sculpture and photography. His work has been curated into many major national and international exhibitions including representing New Zealand at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival. Carr’s work is held a number of significant public and private collections throughout Australasia and further abroad. He is represented in New Zealand by Michael Lett, Auckland, and in Australia by Station Gallery, Melbourne. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Film at the University of Canterbury, School of Fine Arts. Born in Gore in 1976, he is based in Christchurch.

ends

© Scoop Media