City Gallery Wellington Announces Exhibition

Unique Expressions Of Shared Experience City Gallery Wellington Announces International Exhibition Roundabout

Māori and Pacific artists are at the fore of the groundbreaking international art project roundabout, premiering at City Gallery Wellington on 25 September 2010.

roundabout at City Gallery Wellington is an exhibition of epic proportions, featuring over a hundred works by artists from around the world, including work from India, China, South Korea, Thailand, Bhutan, Australia, Tibet and Japan. City Gallery Wellington proudly hosts the first showing of this truly international exhibition, giving New Zealanders the opportunity to experience art never before seen in this country.

The first stop on an international tour, this exhibition has a distinctly New Zealand flavour. Māori and Pacific artists make a major contribution, with many of New Zealand’s leading practitioners represented.

This exhibition celebrates common threads of human experience - belief, faith, challenge and hope. City Gallery Director Paula Savage says, “This exhibition provides rich and timely considerations of the current state of our world. roundabout acknowledges that the world rotates on a common axis, and many experiences are shared irrespective of geographical separation or differing traditions and languages. The exhibition provides an important platform for conversations to arise between Western and non-Western visual cultures, contemporary and customary practices.”

Senior Curator Heather Galbraith comments “While roundabouto defies easy categorization, some shared themes can be seen through the works; witty and robust discussions about the influence of westernization on traditional cultures, assertions of the importance of self-determination and representation, consideration of the global pervasiveness of pop culture, and a range of discussions about the role of religion and political ideology within contemporary life.”

The exhibition draws from the ‘Roundabout’ collection built by David Teplitzky and Peggy Scott, and is produced by a project team based in Thailand and New Zealand which includes American, Israeli, Australian, Thai and Māori collaborators. For the City Gallery Wellington, roundabout works have been selected by Senior Curator Heather Galbraith and roundabout project curators David Teplitzky and Julie Paama Pengelly.

David Teplitzky says, “This show, roundabout, is less an art exhibition than a life statement. It explores the possibilities of natural exchanges among geographically separated cultures and of different traditions and languages. The concepts of family and community are universal. The exhibition is a way of honouring the artists who made the work and introducing their ideas to new audiences, a means of exhibiting their work with that of artists with whom they have not shown previously, and a forum for bringing the whole discussion roundabout.”

Artists include (New Zealand artists in bold): Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, Chiho Aoshima, Rina Banerjee, Del Kathryn Barton, Gordon Bennett, Bhutanese Textile Project, Sean Cordiero & Claire Healy, Shane Cotton, Todd Couper, Jacqueline Fraser, Gade, Lyonel Grant, Gonkar Gyatso, Chris Heaphy, Lonnie Hutchinson, Sui Jianguo, Tim Johnson, Isaac Julien, Robyn Kahukiwa, Titus Kaphar, Rangi Kipa, Terence Koh, Sakarin Krue-On, Sigalit Landau, Yoshitomo Nara, Shirin Neshat, Fiona Pardington, Michael Parekowhai, John Pule, Lisa Reihana, Peter Robinson, Tom Sachs, Pinaree Sanpitak, Gigi Scaria, Greg Semu, Doug and Mike Starn, Tavares Strachan, Sung, Kelcy Taratoa, Thukral & Tagra, Roi Toia, Wang Lei, Jurmey, Kezang and Sonam Wangmo, Judy Watson, Areta Wilkinson, Huang Yan and Zhu Wei.

The exhibition will also include custom-made furniture by Queenstown based designer Ed Cruikshank, and a 24 hour cycle of music selected by Flying Nun Records founder Roger Shepherd. After its showing at City Gallery Wellington roundabout will commence a multi-venue tour of Europe and North America. The show will be adapted for each venue from a core selection of works by 108 artists.

ENDS

© Scoop Media