Ten must-see exhibitions this month
Warren Feeney looks at the visual art around the city worth exploring.
Jacqueline Fahey, Say Something! (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu)
A decisive feminist voice and presence in the arts throughout the 1970s and early 80s, Jacqueline Fahey’s Say Something! is a survey exhibition, confirming that her paintings will resonate with the realities of all our daily lives for generations to come. Giving centre stage to family, her paintings are dense in their attention to the bric-a-brac and furnishings of home, making tangible an unspoken silence about the dubious nature of dressing up anything and everything in brightly coloured patterns as assurance that relationships with parents, children and grandparents could not be better. A great pleasure to rediscover her work and to see that My Skirt’s in Your F...ing Room! is as high-pitched and pertinent today as it appeared 38 years ago. Say Something! is open until March 11.
50 Greatest Photographs of National Geographic (Canterbury Museum)
This selection of photographs from
120 years of National Geographic magazine is even better than the promise its title boldly announces. As an organisation established for ‘‘science and exploration across the planet’’, its photographers have consistently exceeded such a brief.
Just take a look at the photograph of the Titanic on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean from
1985, or Iraqi troops igniting the oil fields of Southern Kuwait in 1991, or Steve McCurry’s ‘‘world’s most famous’’ photographic portrait, Afghan Girl, of an Afghanistan refugee in 1984. Like all the images in 50 Greatest Photographs, the background material on each one adds further to the exhibition’s experience. Be prepared to discover the human race, the animal kingdom and planet earth as if for the very first time. 50 Greatest Photographs is open until February 25.
World War I: Lives Lost, Lives Changed (Canterbury Museum)
Also at the museum throughout January is its memorial exhibition for the centenary of the end of World War I. It reveals the Great War from the experiences of Cantabrians, personalising its impact with a combination of memories from Canterbury’s Expeditionary Forces in Europe and those who remained at home; women raising funds to support troops overseas and those unable to enlist or refusing to enlist.
Making extensive use of diaries, films, photographs, newspaper clippings and memorabilia, Lives Lost, Lives Changed is a touching and enlightening exhibition. Discover Walter Clutterbuck, a Kaiapoi butcher whose continuous efforts to enlist failed but he became exempt from public humiliation when given an armband to wear in public, confirming he was neither a coward, nor a conscientious objector. Lives Lost, Lives Changed runs until November 11.
Shannon Williamson, works on paper (Absolution)
The body piercing and tattoo studio Absolution has relocated to the ground floor of The Arts Centre’s Old Boys High School building, reopening its gallery space with work by Shannon Williamson, courtesy of City Art. In images of the figure and body defined in subtle lines in watercolour and gouache, Williamson’s art is as beautiful as it is anxious and unsettling.
These are difficult images to pin down, but that has consistently been the best aspect of Absolution’s programme and its presence in its new venue promises much to look forward to. Williamson’s exhibition is ongoing.
Ano Pascoe, Form in Space (Chambers Gallery)
This the first solo exhibition by architect, designer and Christchurch-based artist Ano Pascoe.
In digital works on paper that shift between abstraction and figuration, Pascoe’s interest is in not only the relationships between form, line and colour but also their dynamics within the limitless spaces that they occupy in his work. Form in Space is open from January 23 to February 3.
Upstairs Stock Gallery (City Art)
Works on paper by Brooke Georgia, ceramics by Nichola Shanley and paintings by F. van Hout from his Painted Red Paintings (PRP) series occupy the upstairs gallery space at City Art, with other emerging and senior artists.
Rediscovering Cubist space and geometric abstraction as a visual game of Lego, van Hout’s images understand the legacy of artists like Picasso, but pay attention to the French artist’s humour in his own series of playfully captivating images. The Upstairs Stock gallery at City Art is ongoing.
Buried Treasure: Archaeology and the discovery of lost civilisations (Teece Museum of Classical Antiquities)
Recently opened at The Arts Centre, Buried Treasure is a beginner’s guide to archaeology and the treasures of ancient Europe and the classical world. Any exhibition with two mummified Egyptian cats wrapped in linen will be an attraction, but Buried Treasure also features an Egyptian funeral mask from 304BC, gifted to the University of Canterbury’s Logie Collection in 2014 by the Philo Logie Society, courtesy of the estate of Christchurch resident and former sheet metal worker Maxwell Coulbeck.
The success of his business saw him indulge in his love of antiquities, becoming an avid enthusiast with an impressive collection. Buried Treasure is an ongoing exhibition at the Teece Museum.
Closer: Old Favourites, New Stories (Christchurch Art Gallery)
This exhibition features wellknown historical works from the gallery’s permanent collection, aiming to reignite new interest in them. For any sceptic who thinks that this is an exhibition simply dealing with the small detail of works in the permanent collection, think again. The big picture is also contained within such particulars.
Indeed, for the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand, Petrus van der Velden’s Dutch Funeral is exhibited with its correct title: Burial in the Winter on the Island of Marken, 1872. The fact it was lost for more than 120 years, says something about the wider status (or lack of) accorded to our most important artists throughout much of that time. Closer: Old Favourites, New Stories is open until August 19.
Hannah Beehre: Mures, et Terram (CoCA Toi Moroki)
Star attraction of the downstairs exhibition at CoCA is Hannah Beehre’s seven-panel drawing Mures, et Terram, which extends the full length of the Canaday Gallery.
In the intricacy of its marking and weighting of tonality and light it is immediately identifiable as Beehre’s work, reminiscent of her premier-winning entry in the Parkin Prize in 2016 and the subject of her interest in the smaller creatures that inhabit the planet. Mures, et Terram is a gem of an exhibition and is open until February 18.
Glimpse Panorama: Landscape Aspects in Contemporary New Zealand Art (The Central).
You may have already thought that you have seen Glimpse Panorama, The Central’s December exhibition about land and the landscape. However, this month it features additional new work by new artists, including sculpture by Pasifica printmaker and sculptor Michael Tuffery, paintings by John Walsh and glass by Emma Camden.
Tuffery has been absent from the Arts Centre since the Salamander Gallery closed in February 2011 and his return provides good reason to also come back for a second visit.
The exhibition runs until January 28.