An installation by Dan Arps
186 Willis Street
Opening 6pm Wednesday August 29th
Exhibition runs from Aug 30th to Sept 8th
Hours 10am to 5pm Wednesday to Saturday
This exhibition is facilitated by Enjoy.
p h a r m a c y is the new site-specific installation by Christchurch based artist Dan Arps. Seamlessly insinuated in to
the crumbling authoritarian façade of a disused ground floor reception area in the Hewlett Packard building, p h a r m a
c y presents the viewer with an expansive interactive non-linear narrative. Set in a corporate wasteland of dilapidated
late eighties excess, p h a r m a c y operates between the disciplines of museology, archeology, architecture,
chemistry, science fiction, cinema and sculpture.
Dan Arps was last seen in Wellington with Observation Deck, installed at Enjoy last year. In this current incarnation
Arps will be using a more loaded space in which to inflict his unusual, audience-challenging working style. There will
be plastic, there will be light, and yes there will be confusion. But don’t let your nerves stop you, as this is
literally a one time only event. The186 Willis Street location has been established especially for this show, with the
space and its corporate history used as subject matter for the development of this new work.
In the last three years Dan Arps has developed a body of work that make the audience move (and shake) around the space
and that extend and engage with the possibilities for experiencing an art work. Live and direct from the Experimental
Art Foundation, Adelaide, Dan Arps’ installational stylings have recently graced the Dunedin Public Art Gallery and the
Physics Room in Christchurch. Dan Arps has been a coordinator and participant in other such site-specific projects as
S*W*A*B presents: RUMBLE IN THE BRONX (in an old Wizards spacies arcade in Christchurch), Canvass (an old canvas
factory) Thoroughfare (an old bank) and the list goes on. Dan Arps is one of New Zealand’s most active and exciting
contemporary art practitioners and he is here NOW, live and direct. So move your money maker down to p h a r m a c y on
the Ground Floor of 186 Willis Street.