Review of the 2007 Telecom Prospect Exhibition City Gallery Wellington 11th Feb -29th April
When most people think of contemporary art they think of a crazy work that’s only special because the artist thought to do it first, (like creating a mountain of popcorn) or it’s something that most people believe a monkey with a paint brush could re-create (think Jackson Pollock – but NZ). Often it is seen to be something that requires no talent, no artistic skill all you have to do is put it in a gallery and give it the label of art. It seems as though contemporary art has a reputation of being…well… not very good at all. This seems unfair to me, we have some excellent contemporary NZ artists and if you’re willing to be openminded and are around the Wellington area I suggest a visit to the 2007 Telecom Prospect at the City Gallery. This exhibition is a showcase of contemporary New Zealand art: the good the bad and the very, very ugly. Believe it or not, I promise you there is something for everyone (and don’t worry, its free!). For me some of the highlights were:
Gina Matchitt and her work ‘Where everyone gets a bargain’.
Yes: These are pretty handbags with modified corporate logos translated into maori on them. KMH (Kiwi for Chicken or Kiwi Mo Heihei) and Waipiro Kingi (Liquor King). This series not only includes the above images but uses other big name budget brands, Countdown and Pak’n'Save and of course The Warehouse. Ironically, each one has been handcrafted and made from materials such as vinyl, fur, plastics and sheepskin- so not such a bargain material wise. Despite this the work can be seen to encourage us to consider the relationship between our culture and advertising and the nature of language and the effects of colonisation in a very aesthetically pleasing way.
The second work that intrigued me was ‘U.F.O.B’ by Rachael Rakena and Brett Graham.
Firstly lets consider the title: U.F.O.B. It combines the acronym for aliens with an acronym for new migrants (FOBs) thus creating ‘U FOB’. This work was amazing. You enter a dark room with bean bag seating and stare at the ceiling, however according to the curator Heather Galbraith, it is best viewed lying on the floor. This work is a little crazy, highly contemporary and has some interesting ideas behind it and is best described by Peter Brunt when he viewed it at a Sydney showing:
……. A fleet of ‘unidentified flying objects’ hovers above us. Through their ‘portholes’ we see, on embedded television screens, digital video loops of brown bodies absurdly wrapped in plastic carry-bags, floating surreally underwater.[the work is] about encountering the ‘other’……….it is also about imagining the ‘self’ in the Pacific ‘contact zone’. The bags, we might recognize, are the kind typically used by Polynesians as luggage in their frequent air-crossings of the Pacific Ocean—part of the modern business of keeping up connections and relationships in the diaspora of the last few decades.
All in all this exhibition is well worth the look. And don’t despair, traditional art lovers – there are more ‘normal’ works, using traditional mediums, in the upstairs galleries by artists such as Richard Kileen and Andrew Mc Leod.
Now I know who inspired THIS post!
Actually Leanne, the examples you picked seem relatively interesting and look like they took some effort & skill to create.
So regardless of whether they are my “thing” they seem authentic enough to me (i.e. I don’t think it’s a big LOB!)
I still refuse to give shitting on a matress the time of day, or any respect, but certainly we have some common ground here.
Left by Craig D on March 17th, 2007