Bank back yard to be art site

Bank back yard to be art site

The back yard of a Dunedin bank will be dug up next week in the name of art, becoming a temporary extension of the Blue Oyster Art Project Space.

Jodie Salmond's work Hopes for the Future consists of a hole the approximate size of a grave, a small grandstand and a bright halogen lighting structure that shines straight down into the ground. The project looks at the different methods of truth seeking used to decide what to believe in today's world.

Blue Oyster Director Jaenine Parkinson says Salmond originally wanted to install the work inside the gallery, which would have involved digging up the floor.

"The Trustees liked the project, but it just wasn't feasible doing it inside," says Parkinson.

"It took a while to find an outdoor site because we needed a green space without trees. We asked lots and lots of people before finding a site behind the National Bank's University branch (cnr Gowland and Albany streets) where everyone said 'yes'."

Parkinson says the project would not have been possible without support from the National Bank and local businesses Dow Excavation and Otago Fence Hire.

"Science and spectatorship are two methods which are vigorously employed in our daily search for meanings and answers, but they don't necessarily produce understanding," says Salmond.

"Maybe all that we are discovering are illusions of understanding that give comfort through authority and familiarity. Maybe that's enough," she says.

Hopes for the Future opens on 7 December and then will be open every evening between 7pm and 10pm until 12 December. It will be open in the evenings outside normal gallery hours because it requires supervision due to the depth of the hole.

ENDS

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