Dark knights rise in latest Christchurch Art Gallery exhibition

Black-clad warrior knights, brightly back-dropped rock-scapes and mysterious sculptures make up Christchurch Art Gallery’s latest exhibition, Rebels, Knights and Other Tomorrows, which opens this Saturday.

Christchurch-based collaborative duo Edwards + Johann present a vividly imagined installation of sculptures and large-scale photographs, laced with textures, tension and flashes of brilliant colour.

The exhibition features the duo’s Knight in the Wilderness series alongside The Accidental Rebels — images of rocks suspended against, or falling through, vivid colour fields. Also inhabiting the gallery spaces are the Probes — seven chaotically beautiful sculptures that rise up from the floor on stems created from salvaged organ pipes.

Christchurch Art Gallery director Jenny Harper says the exhibition is one that gradually reveals a more playful side.

“At first glance, the Knights confront you as larger-than-life dark lords, ominously looming out of the void and almost inherently villainous,” she says.

“But step closer and you begin to notice the subtleties — layers of black fabrics and found objects, carefully draped textures punctuated by streaks of coloured thread and bright, off-centre blooms.

“The works become elaborate and theatrical, the Knights flaunting their regalia and objects rather than wielding them.”

In constructing the Knights, the artists combine theatre, ritual and role-play into a collaborative and creative process.

Likening their partnership to a “delicate duelling”, Victoria Edwards and Ina Johann have worked together since 2007 in a range of media, including drawing, photography, installation, video and performance. They were recently among 10 artists selected for a juried exhibition celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Los Angeles Center for Digital Art.

To mark the opening of Rebels, Knights and Other Tomorrows, Christchurch Art Gallery will host a free talk by Edwards + Johann this Saturday, 11:00am, at its temporary exhibition space at 209 Tuam Street, Christchurch.

Rebels, Knights and Other Tomorrows (23 August–2 November 2014) will be located on the first floor of 209 Tuam Street, Christchurch. Entry is free.

Opening times:
10am–5pm, Monday to Friday, and 10am–4pm, Saturday and Sunday

ENDS

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