Absence, the newest exhibition at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, argues that sometimes the most compelling thing
is what isn’t there.
Petrus van der Velden Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken [also known as The Dutch Funeral] 1872. Oil on
canvas. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, gift of Henry Charles Drury van Asch, 1932
Running from 6 May to 20 August 2023, Absence brings together works from artists working across diverse mediums and eras. All connect with that central theme – from
things that have been and gone to those we think may soon arrive. Covering a wide spectrum that includes the mournful
and the mischievous, the monumental and the hardly-there-at-all, Absence invites viewers to fill in the gaps.
The wide range of works includes:One of the Gallery’s best-loved paintings, Petrus van der Velden’s Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken [also known as The Dutch Funeral] from 1872, alongside works by Aotearoa artists such as Rita Angus, Ralph Hotere, Colin McCahon, Séraphine Pick, Shane
Cotton and Bill Hammond.Saying goodbye to Florence, a sombre and personal suite of 12 prints by Robin White that marked the death of her mother.A lithograph depicting death as a cloaked figure that was completed in Berlin in 1934 by Käthe Kollwitz, one of the
foremost artists of social protest in the 20th century.Katharina Jaeger’s 2008 sculpture Pracht, assembled from discarded furniture parts found in an Ōtautahi Christchurch junk shop.A photograph by Tim Veling documenting part of Ōtautahi’s former residential red zone, where the vestiges of domestic
gardens recall the lives of those who were forced to leave.A stained glass window recovered from the Barbadoes Street Cemetery Chapel, depicting Mary Magdalene and Mary, the
mother of James at the empty tomb of Christ.An unexpected portrait of the celebrated writer Margaret Mahy taken by Marti Friedlander in 2008.Ghost, a 2022 painting by Claudia Kogachi that recreates the much-parodied pottery scene from the 1990 film – without either
Patrick Swayze or Demi Moore.