Brown on show

The latest exhibition in the Hastings City Art Gallery, No direct access to reality, is a double whammy for artist John Brown.

Not only is he the creator of the artwork but in his relatively new position as the gallery’s full-time display technician he has to set it up for the audience as well.

That has its challenges, he says.

“It’s not too difficult; but when you’re installing with people you work with all the time, rather than in a gallery you don’t know, you’re aware that they have requirements from the exhibition that don’t necessarily fit with yours. It’s all come together though, and I’m looking forward to reaction to it.”

Brown moved to Hawke’s Bay last year for a better lifestyle for his family.

Auckland born and raised, he said it was taking a little getting used to, especially as his family is renting a lifestyle block while they house hunt. Looking after pigs, sheep and chickens is very different to living right in the middle of the city.
It was not as bigger change as one the family experienced in 2012, when Brown won the Kaipara Foundation Wallace Trust Award. The prize was a three month residency at the Altes Spital in Solothurn, Switzerland. His partner and two children went to Switzerland with him.

Gallery director Toni MacKinnon was thrilled with both the exhibition and being able to hire the artist as a technician.
On the exhibition, she says Brown’s new work is a departure from the two-dimensional work he was known for.
“His intriguing objects appear to be from the darkest archive of a museum, like magical talismans, or relics of an ancient history. Brown constructs the objects as if they were props in film set. Mimicking an archaeological find, John Brown artist is, in this show, playing the part of archaeologist.
“The works in the exhibition are captivatingly beautiful and unnerving all at once – we are really looking forward to engaging visitors with them”.
And on being able to employ a technician, she says: “Having a technician full time at the gallery means we can go out into community spaces with projects and programmes as well as having great exhibitions. We are really looking forward to being in the community much more.

ENDS

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