Tim Veling And The Corner Store coming to CoCA May 31st

Change is afoot at CoCA with a new collab space launching at Lux Café and a new programming schedule for our Ground Floor Gallery, beginning with Vestiges, the latest installment of Tim Veling’s ongoing photographic documentation of Christchurch’s earthquake-ravaged red zone.

Documenting the transition of the once heavily populated suburb of Avonside into a much-debated public green space has become a long term obession for Christchurch photographer Tim Veling. This showing of Vestiges in CoCA’s ground floor gallery marks the approximate half-way point in Veling’s ever-evolving body of work, his images providing visual record of both the history and psychology of place by visiting and re-visiting the site through its continual states of change. Veling has found photographing in Avonside to have been a disconcerting experience stating: “Early on, I’d head out to photograph and find people out and about; walking dogs, talking over fences and generally being social. Very quickly, however, dust and the churning noise of machinery hung in the air as well-loved homes were demolished. Much of what was left of well-established gardens was then thrown through wood chippers, and after graders scraped and levelled the earth. Avonside now feels unbearably quiet, but if you take time to jump the chain fences and stand in the fields, if the light is right and you’re receptive, you can sense the ghostly shapes of homes and people where they once stood.” Tim Veling’s exhibition heralds a change to CoCA’s ground floor gallery programming from a seasonal schedule to a more dynamic 4-6 week calendar, allowing greater opportunity to show and experience contemporary art.

CoCA is also thrilled to announce the launch of a new gallery space in Lux Café on our ground floor. Responding to the need for exhibition spaces in the Central CBD for local artist collectives, the Lux Café space will feature 12-month collaborations between CoCA and a Christchurch artist collective, kicking off the collab with The Corner Store. Formerly The Welder Collective, The Corner Store represents artists across painting, design, photography, street, illustration, and craft, and aims to bridge the gap between traditional arts education or hobbyism and entering the ‘real world’ as a practicing artist by providing studio space for 15 resident artists, professional developmment and exhibition opportunites with a number of Christchurch galleries, CoCA included.

The inaugural CoCA X The Corner Store collab will see Christchurch-based visual artist and illustrator Uncle Harold return to exhibiting off the back of a string of commercial projects gaining him national recognition, with his third solo exhibition Supply & Demand. Heavily influenced by the subversive works of underground artists who pioneered the merging of skate culture and art, Uncle Harold’s practice embodies the skater philosophy of seeing the potential of an object to be utilised in ways other than its intended use, his artworks parodying the everyday and thereby reminding us of the desensitization bred by consumerism and the media. In Supply & Demand, Uncle Harold steps away from the lighthearted, colourful aesthetic he’s reknowned for to explore the commodification of violence and our society’s unsettling familiarity with objects designed to harm. According to the artist: “The painted collection of golden weapons represent the polarising ways that they are used as currency. When bought and traded in war they are a terrifying symbol of power and humanities contrasting ideologies around both freedom and oppression; when used as viral imagery, consumers of music and fashion are sold seemingly innocuous representations of the same weapons, appealing to our innate fascination with danger.”

Join us in celebrating the launch of this exciting collaboration, and the opening of these two incredible exhibitions at CoCA on Thursday May 31st from 5:30pm, Ground Floor Gallery and Lux Café, 66 Gloucester Street, Christchurch CBD

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Tim Veling’s exhibition is generously sponsored by University of Canterbury, Ilam School of Fine Arts

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