Mary Kisler reports back from the freshly reopened Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, discussing works on display by Martin Creed, Bill Culbert, Robyn White, Rita Angus, Frances Upritchard, Connie Samaras and more, as well as what Colin McCahon and Leonard Cohen have in common. As she told Kim Hill.:
"You can not actually go into the gallery now and look at anything there without having the sense of what has happened sitting on your shoulders... There's kind of a metaphor for Christchurch in every single work on display, in one way or another, but also a metaphor for what we need in life; for sustenance."
Mary Kisler is Senior Curator, Mackelvie Collection, International Art at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Martin Creed, Work no 2314, 2015. Neon. 146.8 x 4600 cm. Commissioned by Christchurch Art Gallery Foundation, gift of Neil Graham.
Bill Culbert, Bebop, 2013. Furniture, fluorescent tubes, electrical components, wire, sheet glass, purchased with assistance from Gabrielle Tasman and the Christchurch Art Gallery Trust, 2014.
Rita Angus, A Goddess of Mercy, 1945-1947. Oil on canvas, purchased 1956. Reproduced courtesy of the estate of Rita Angus. From the exhibition, In the Vast Emptiness (8 January to 4 June).
Doris Lusk, Canterbury Plains from Cashmere Hills 1952. Oil on canvas board, purchased 1974. From the exhibition, In the Vast Emptiness (8 January to 4 June).
Lonnie Hutchinson, Sista7, 2003. Black building paper, purchased 2003. From the exhibition, Ata Wairere (18 December 2015 to 4 June 2016)
Francis Upritchard, Wife, 2006, and Husband, 2006. Rabbit fur, tanned goat skin, modelling materials, purchased 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Kate MacGarry. From the exhibition, Beasts (18 December 2015 to 30 October 2016)
Stills taken from Connie Samaras, Untitled (Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica), 2005. DVD, looped running time 4:30, purchased 2014.
John Buckland Wright, Diana and Endymion, 1944. Wood engraving, purchased 2002. From the exhibition, The Golden Age (18 December 2015 to 1 May 2016).
Gertrude Hermes, More People, 1935. Wood engraving, presented by Rex Nan Kivell, 1953. From the exhibition, The Golden Age (18 December 2015 to 1 May 2016).
Installation view of Petrus van der Velden, The Dutch funeral, 1875. Oil on canvas, gifted by Henry Charles Drury van Asch, 1932 AND Colin McCahon, Blind V. Synthetic polymer paint on unstretched canvas, purchased 1975. Reproduced courtesy of Colin McCahon Research and Publication Trust. From the exhibition, McCahon / Van der Velden (18 December 2015 to 29 February 2016).
Detail of Petrus van der Velden, The Dutch Funeral, 1875. From the exhibition, McCahon / Van der Velden (18 December 2015 to 29 February 2016).
Zina Swanson, Some People's Plants Never Flower…, 2007. Mixed media - glass, wood, organic material, purchased with the support of Coffey Projects. From the exhibition, A Room of One’s Own (18 December 2015 to 8 May 2016).
Images from exhibitions at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu.
