Dane Mitchell: Letters and Documents 
Curated by Christina Barton 

This exhibition brings a key element of Dane Mitchell’s 2019 Post Hoc installation for the 58^th Venice Biennale together with works produced by the artist between 1998 and 2005. Focusing on the printed lists that were produced during the seven-month exhibition in Venice, this gathering of works charts a particular trajectory back to Mitchell’s earlier practice, bringing together drawings, printed documents, vinyl records and photographic documentation. These formats uncannily replicate the logic of Post Hoc, but are its incipient precursor. From a stolen painting, to a lost satchel, a purloined bag of rubbish and illicitly recorded conversations, Mitchell treats his subjects and their representation as tools to reflect on how information and knowledge is conveyed, exchanged, withheld, remembered and forgotten.

Dane Mitchell: Letters and Documents Gallery Guide pdf.

Dane Mitchell (1976, Aotearoa New Zealand) lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. He completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts at the Auckland Institute of Technology in 1998 and a Master of Philosophy from Auckland University of Technology in 2012. He has held residencies in Melbourne, Wellington, London, Berlin, New Plymouth, Dunedin and Scotland and regularly exhibits nationally and internationally. In 2019 he represented New Zealand at the 58^th Venice Biennale. Mitchell is represented by Mossman, Wellington.

Image: Dane Mitchell, Installation view of Post Hoc Relic, 2019, printed paper rolls, canvas and metal strap, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Courtesy of the artist and Mossman, Wellington

New Adam Art Gallery Edition

Adam Art Gallery is pleased to announce the launch of its second Artist Edition. To accompany Letters and Documents, Adam Art Gallery has commissioned Dane Mitchell to produce a new 12-inch vinyl record that features the voice of ‘Amy’ the synthetic avatar who reads the ‘List of Lists’ that is the index to the contents of his Post Hoc exhibition. This is the second Adam Art Gallery Artist Edition marking the gallery’s move into its third decade of operation. This record is produced in an edition of 20. Proceeds from its sale are used to support the work of the gallery. To purchase and for more information, visit our online shop. For questions, please contact ann.gale@vuw.ac.nz.

Ken Friedman: 92 Events

92 Events presents works spanning four decades by American Fluxus artist Ken Friedman. Friedman’s instructional texts navigate a fine line between sculptural proposition, absurdist action, and concrete poetry, as is fitting given his connections to Fluxus, the international movement that developed its anarchic approach to art making from the 1950s through to the present. His exhibition has been devised to be shown in multiple venues across the globe at minimal cost, in the spirit of a movement that eschewed the idea of art having monetary value. Friedman’s playful but profound scores are a welcome respite in this current moment, providing a fitting model for new ways of envisaging how art might function as a mental game where the imagination can roam even if our bodies can’t.

Ken Friedman: 92 Events Gallery Guide pdf.

Ken Friedman (1949, New London Connecticut) joined Fluxus in 1966 on the invitation of Fluxus co-founder George Maciunas, as the youngest member of the group. He subsequently worked closely with artists and composers associated with Fluxus such as Dick Higgins, Nam June Paik, John Cage and others. He was instrumental in establishing Fluxus West which was designed as a gathering point for Fluxus-related activities in the western states of America, but also extended its reach to Germany and the UK in the late 1960s and 1970s. In 1971 he participated in New Zealand post-object artist and composer Philip Dadson’s Earthworks a ‘composition’ for film and audiotape realised simultaneously at fifteen locations across the globe. Friedman has pursued an academic career in addition to his art practice and is currently Professor of Design Innovation Studies at Tongji University in Shanghai, China.

Image: Installation view, Ken Friedman: 92 Events, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi

 
Fraser Crichton, Mariachiara Ficarelli, Lachlan Kermode, Bhaveeka Madagammana, Davide Mangano, Karamia Müller: Violent Legalities

Violent Legalities is an interdisciplinary project that brings together contributors spanning the fields of anthropology, architecture, art and software design. The project was initiated by academic Karamia Müller, Lecturer at the School of Architecture and Planning, University of Auckland, and London/Boston based New Zealander Lachlan Kermode, software lead at human rights agency ForensicArchitecture, based at Goldsmiths University, London. Building on open-source software developed by Forensic Architecture, the exhibition launches new interactive maps of Aotearoa, specially developed to plot historical instances of violence and unrest and to track these against a chronology of legislative changes. This ambitious project draws on hundreds of documents and sources, including the Waitangi Tribunal, and is initiated in the wake of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings. The exhibition trials this software as a potential tool in scrutinising such law changes. It presents a case, based on the group’s initial findings, that certain changes in legislation have led to the over-policing of non-Pākehā and the under-policing of white supremacist groups.

Violent Legalities Gallery Guide pdf.

Fraser Crichton is a Pōneke/Wellington based visual artist who graduated from the Photojournalism and Documentary Photography Masters at University of Arts London in 2019. His research-based practice incorporates investigative journalism, data-visualisation, video, archival imagery, still photography, and community based participatory photography projects. Crichton’s work examines the power of the state in the context of social reform and the criminal justice system.

Mariachiara Ficarelli is an Italian anthropologist and filmmaker. She is interested in the potential of open source research for ethnographic methodology.

Lachlan Kermode develops full stack architectures, manages machine learning workflows, and handles the granular details of computer infrastructure across a range of Forensic Architecture’s investigations. He has a degree in Computer Science from Princeton University, and a range of experience both in industry and as a full stack freelancer. His academic interests are generally found in and between computer science, infrastructure studies, and cultural and critical theory.

Bhaveeka Madagammana is a postgraduate student currently studying architecture at the University of Auckland.

Davide Mangano is a computer graphics generalist with a bachelor’s degree in CG animation from the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan. He has specialised in 3D environments for both real-time and rendered projects.

Karamia Müller is a Pacific scholar and feminist specialising in Pacific space concepts. Her research specializes in the ‘indigenization’ of design methodologies with a focus on indigenous spatialities.

The initial workshop, and subsequent research assistance for this project was funded by a University of Auckland, Creative Arts and Industries Faculty Research Development Fund Grant.

Image: Karamia Müller, Lachlan Kermode, et al., TimeMap Cartographic Diagram, 2014-20, software developed by Forensic Architecture

Listen to Dr. Karamia Müller on RNZ, 12 June 2020 

Watch an interview with Dr. Karamia Müller on te ao Māori News 16 June 2020.

Julia Morison: Head[case]

Organised by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū and toured with support from Objectspace Auckland

Christchurch-based Julia Morison is a leading figure in New Zealand art. This installation is the latest in her long series of works that draw on esoteric knowledge systems that redefine materials and images to recode their symbolic connotations. Head[case], comprises 114 unique ceramic heads made by the artist since 2011. Each sculpture is modelled on a hat-maker’s block and demonstrates Morison’s skilful deployment of a range of raw materials and firing processes, from glazed porcelain and clay to oxidised stoneware. Hovering between the surreal and the systematic, Head[case] takes the fundamental attributes of the human head and playfully adjusts them to accentuate and transform the sensory portals through which we mediate our relations with the world and with each other. For this unique realisation, the artist has configured the custom-built shelving system of interlocking hexagons to fit the proportions of the Adam Art Gallery and installed bespoke lighting. Morison’s installation is accompanied by a sound work by John Chrisstoffels.

Julia Morison: Head[case] Gallery Guide pdf.

Julia Morison studied at the Wellington Polytechnic, graduating in 1972 with a diploma in graphic design, and went on to gain an honours degree from the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts in 1975. Since then, Morison has exhibited nationally and internationally and has been awarded numerous grants and awards, including the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship in 1989, and the prestigious New Zealand Moët & Chandon Fellowship in 1990, which allowed her to travel to France for a year’s residency. She chose to make France her base for the following 10 years, returning to take up an appointment as senior lecturer of painting at the University of Canterbury (1999–2007). Morison became a New Zealand Arts Foundation Laureate in 2005. In 2018 she was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM). She lives and works in Christchurch and is represented by Two Rooms, Auckland and Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch.

The artist acknowledges the support of Creative New Zealand in the realisation of this project.

Image: Julia Morison, Whimsy on Wheels, 2018, glazed porcelain, vintage castors, 330 x 135 mm, courtesy of the artist (photo: John Collie)

Read the media release for these four exhibitions here.