AUGUST 21 2008
Wintec's Ramp Gallery Exhibits work of leading New Zealand Artist
An exhibition by Julia Morison entitled MYRIORAMA#3 is to open at Wintec School of Media Arts Ramp Gallery on September
2, with a 5:30 open launch. Julia Morison is described as one of New Zealand's most inventive artists. Over three
decades using a complex symbolic system, she has developed a rich artistic vocabulary inspired by sources such as
Hermeticism, the Kabbalah, alchemy and memory systems.
Julia and Freelance critic curator and artist John Hurrell will discuss the artists' work on Wednesday 3 September at
11.00 am in Lecture Theatre C.16 at Wintec.
RAMP Gallery director, Janice Abo Ganis said Wintec School of Media Arts was delighted to present an exclusive version
of Julia Morison's continually changing exhibition Myriorama, the third permutation of this work. The first was
presented in Christchurch at 64zero3 in April; the second at Two Rooms in Auckland.
A 'myriorama' is a Victorian parlour card game of specially printed small landscapes that can be horizontally
repositioned to create imaginary panoramic vistas. Morison has seen connections between it and some of her past
projects, and so devised her own version, inventing a restricted vocabulary of shapes which can be repeated and hung in
different combinations. Her work has various modules that can be joined together. The various forms consist of flat
semi-circles, quadrants, curved trapeziums, bullet noses, u-shapes and more. Each of these shapes has at least one
straight edge that can be butted against any straight edge of another so that the internal parallel lines link up. When
two or more (sometimes a lot more) forms are combined they acquire unexpected spatial depth. Planes start to bend into
the wall or curve out; shapes tucked into corners take on strange ballooning properties; right-angled intersections
flatten out and vice versa.
Morison lives and works in Christchurch and has exhibited extensively in public and private galleries throughout New
Zealand and internationally.
In 1988 Morison was awarded the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship and in 1990, she undertook a Moet & Chandon contemporary art residency in Avize, France, and continued to live and work in France until her return to
Christchurch in 1999. She has received several grants from the New Zealand Arts Council and in 2005 was made an Art
Laureate. In 2006, Julia Morison: a loop around a loop, large survey selected by Justin Paton and Felicity Milburn, was
presented in Christchurch Art Gallery and Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
Abo Ganis said drawings by Stacey Robertson would feature at Wintec's Ledge Gallery at the same time.
[cid:3302088788_5997099] Wintec Ramp Gallery, Collingwood Street, Hamilton Open 12 - 4 pm Monday to Friday
ENDS