Making light work: NZ’s exhibition at Venice Biennale

23 May, 2013

Making light work: installing NZ’s exhibition at Venice Biennale

It takes more 150 fluorescent tubes, 50 second-hand tables and chairs, countless recycled plastic bottles, power cords, suspension wires and a large dash of Bill Culbert alchemy to create Front Door Out Back, New Zealand’s exhibition at the 2013 Venice Biennale.

Culbert’s exhibition for the New Zealand Pavilion of the 2013 Venice Biennale, opening on 29 May, transforms humble domestic objects into dazzling sculptures. And, like his exhibition, there’s a lot more to installing Front Door Out Back than meets the eye.

From the artist’s studio in Croagnes, southern France, the precious cargo – in carefully wrapped and padded pieces – was transported by truck across Europe: a 24-hour journey through the night. The New Zealand Pavilion is at the Istituto Santa Maria della Pietà (La Pietà), near Venice’s central Piazza San Marco. The final stage of transporting the exhibition to the venue had to be by barge along the busy Grand Canal.

La Pietà is an important historic building: it includes a famous “Vivaldi corridor” where the composer taught violin, so installation of the works – some of which are suspended – is delicate and painstaking. Culbert’s work will fill nine spaces within the building, ranging from an outdoor courtyard to a room opening directly onto a canal.

Says Exhibition Manager, Terry Urbahn: “Exhibiting at the Venice Biennale always offers unique challenges, due to the nature of the city itself, with its ancient buildings and waterways.

“The road trip across Europe and onto a barge through the canals of Venice was an epic journey – and the installation is even more so. But the results – Bill’s light installations glowing in the atmospheric spaces of la Pietà – promise to be dazzling.”

The 2013 Venice Biennale opens on 1 June and runs until 24 November. The New Zealand Pavilion and Bill Culbert’s exhibition ‘Front Door Out Back’ open on 29 May.

For more information on New Zealand’s exhibition at 2013 Venice Biennale: www.nzatvenice.com

Background: New Zealand at the 2013 Venice Biennale
Commissioner: Jenny Harper, Director, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu
Deputy Commissioner: Heather Galbraith, Head of the School of Art, College of Creative Arts Toi Rauwharangi, Massey University, New Zealand
Curator: Justin Paton, Senior Curator, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu.

Artist: Bill Culbert
Born in Port Chalmers in 1935, Bill Culbert lived in New Zealand until 1957, when he received a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Art in London. Having emerged to acclaim as a painter in the 1960s, he then began to experiment with the electrical light, which remains at the heart of his practice today. Culbert lives and works in London and Croagnes, France, returning to New Zealand regularly. He has had more than 100 solo exhibitions and been included in group exhibitions around the world. He is also renowned for a number of public commissions, several in collaboration with his friend and fellow artist, the late Ralph Hotere. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts by the University of Canterbury in April 2013.

ENDS

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