10 May 2016
Turning the tables in Adam Art Gallery’s latest exhibition
Adam Art Gallery’s newest exhibition overturns the popular assumption that art galleries provide a neutral backdrop for
art. Art works from the Gallery’s Inhabiting Space exhibition are carefully placed throughout the gallery to draw attention to its architectural design and activate
visitors’ spatial awareness.
At the centre of the exhibition is a three-storey-high sculpture by the late American minimalist artist Fred Sandback,
renowned for creating works entirely from coloured acrylic yarn. The yarn sculpture, which stretches from floor to
ceiling in the Gallery’s atrium, is the largest Sandback sculpture ever to be seen in New Zealand.
To celebrate the exhibition’s official opening on 13 May, a conceptual drawing will be installed live by the Gallery’s
technicians. The drawing by the late-New Zealand contemporary artist Julian Dashper pays homage to Sandback and the
minimalism movement.
Victoria University of Wellington’s Adam Art Gallery Curator Stephen Cleland saysInhabiting Space was spurred by the dynamic architecture of the gallery, designed by acclaimed architect the late Sir Ian Athfield.
“I chose artworks for this exhibition that set up situations and enable viewers to question what it means to inhabit
space. The works cause the viewer to become intensely aware of their surroundings and enable visitors to have a range of
concentrated experiences as they move through the building.
“In this respect, the art in this exhibition playfully interacts with Athfield’s design of the Gallery in an attempt to
bring his visionary spaces into the experience of the exhibition.
“With Sandback’s installation, the shapes created by the yarn generate the sense of a virtual plane within the room.
Viewers discover more about the artwork as they go through the gallery and see how it intersects with the building’s
unique spaces and reacts to its lighting,” he says.
Stephen says each of the works also has a performance element with which the viewer can engage as they move around the
gallery.
“For example in video installations by Sriwhana Spong, Campbell Patterson, and Juliet Carpenter and Evangeline Riddiford
Graham, actors and dancers react to their surroundings and sound permeates through the gallery. While renowned
Australian performance artist Mike Parr’s text piece, written directly on the walls, prompts the viewer to pay attention
to what is around them. We all become actors in this exhibition experience.”
What: Inhabiting Space
When: Opening night: 6pm, Friday 13 May
Exhibition dates: 14 May – 17 July
Where: Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington, Gate 3, Kelburn Parade, Wellington
ends