Christchurch and 1740s Rome Pigment prints, by Doc Ross
Christchurch Railway Station – Rome ca 1740 Christchurch 2012 – Rome 1746 Doc Ross Pigment prints Courtesy of the artist and Chambers Art Gallery
On September 4, 2010, at 4.35am, a 7.1 magnitude earthquake rocked Christchurch.
Then, nearly six months later, on February 22, 2011 at 12:51pm a 6.3 magnitude quake rattled Christchurch - killing 185 people, injuring several thousand people and causing severe damage to the city.
These events changed the shape of Christchurch forever and are central to the three works by Doc Ross currently on show at the Aigantighe Art Gallery as part of the exhibition Urban Worlds.
Since moving to Christchurch in 1998, Ross has been documenting the life and history of the city. He states that he is ‘‘capturing fleeting social and urban transactions with a flaˆneur’s eye’’.
After the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, Ross’ eye turned to the remains of a broken city, but photographs of the earthquake were very popular. There was an onslaught of ‘‘earthquake porn’’ – photographs of broken buildings, machinery, and cones.
So instead Ross focused on the ignored spaces and the people of Christchurch. Overtime these photographs morphed into the works currently on show at the Aigantighe Art Gallery.
In these artworks, Ross superimposes his observations of Christchurch’s devastation over 18th century etchings of Rome - combining layers of time and history.
The 18th century etchings of Rome are from the Age of Enlightenment, a time when the elite would go on a Grand Tour, travelling around Europe in an effort to broaden their horizons and learn about language, architecture, and culture – this was a form of cultural tourism for the rich.
In particular they studied the rise and fall of the Roman Empire (which led to a revival of Classical ideologies). Perhaps Ross is making a statement that the destruction of Christchurch is similar to the fall of the Roman Empire, that in the future Christchurch will become a cultural tourism destination; luring people wanting to see the destruction of a great city. A city that was once established as part of the great British Empire and now has become a symbol of a collapsed colonial past.
Doc Ross was born in 1955 in Eketahuna, New Zealand, and is a selftaught photographer. His work is shown nationally and internationally. It was included in the Sotheby’s New York ‘Contemporary Photography from Australia and New Zealand’ exhibition in 2002, and exhibited at Sydney’s Yellow House Gallery in 2016.
Urban Worlds runs until April 15 at the Aigantighe Art Gallery.