Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph / Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection

 

Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph
Curated by Geoffrey Batchen and Deidra Sullivan
6 October – 20 December, 2018

Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Foreground: Yvonne Todd, Peter, 2014, chromogenic photograph, commissioned from the artist in 2014, Collection of Peter McLeavey. Yvonne Todd, <em>Peter</em>, 2014, chromogenic photograph, commissioned from the artist in 2014, Collection of Peter McLeavey. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Peter Black, <em>Untitled no 13. </em> From the portfolio <em>2 Brooklyn Terrace</em>, 1986, gelatin silver photograph, commissioned from the artist in 1986, Collection of Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa. Andrew Ross, <em>First floor landing, 147 Cuba St (with the original sign), 20/10/2001</em>, 2001, gold-toned gelatin silver photograph (contact printed on printing-out paper), Collection of Peter McLeavey. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Charles Clifford, <em>Sevilla: The Alcazar, 7 May 1862</em>, 1862, albumen photograph from a glass negative, Collection of Peter McLeavey. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Francis Frith, <em>Pyramids of Dahshoor from the east</em>, 1858, albumen photograph from mammoth-plate glass negative, Collection of Peter McLeavey. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Francis Frith, <em>Egypt and Palestine photographed and described, Volume II</em>, circa 1858–1860, bound album with original albumen photographs fixed to each page, Collection Peter McLeavey. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Emilio Beauchy, <em>Sevilla, Interior del Dormitorio des los Reyes Moros, Alcazar</em>, circa 1875, albumen photograph, Collection Peter McLeavey. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi Installation view of <em>The Man in the Hat</em> (2009), digital video, 6mins (excerpts), Director: Luit Bieringa, Producer: Jan Bieringa, Cinematographer: Leon Narbey, Produced by BWX Productions. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Dorothea Lange, <em>The road west, New Mexico [U.S. No. 54, north of El Paso, Texas. One of the westward routes of the migrants], June 1938</em>, gelatin silver photograph printed on warm-toned paper, Collection of Peter McLeavey. Robert Frank, <em>U.S. 285, New Mexico, 1955-1956</em>, 1956, gelatin silver photograph, Collection of Peter McLeavey. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Barbara Kruger, <em>Untitled (We will no longer be seen and not heard) </em>, 1985, nine individual framed photolithographs, Collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Installation view of <em>Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph</em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of Sherrie Levine, <em>After Edgar Degas, 1987, portfolio of 5 photolithographs, Collection of Peter McLeavey 1987. Laurence Aberhart, <em>Taranaki (The heavens declare the glory of God), New Plymouth, May 14, 1986</em>, 1986, gelatin silver photograph; <em>Christ-child-king. Hato Hohera Catholic Mission, Waitaruke, Northland, May 24, 1982</em>, 1982, gelatin silver photograph; <em>Lodge Concord #39, Papanui, Christchurch, December 1981</em>, 1981, gelatin silver photograph; <em>Untitled (Files at the old Cosmopolitan Club, Wanganui) </em>, 1986, gelatin silver photograph. All works collection of Peter McLeavey.

“I think there is one more photograph I have to find. The last photograph. I’m still looking for it. It’s out there somewhere. I’m waiting for it to claim me, the last photograph. I don’t know what it is, but when I see it, I’ll know it and I’ll buy it, and it will hang with all the others. And maybe then the life, the story, the quest, will be complete.”

This exhibition explores the quest described above by Peter McLeavey. Unbeknownst to many, McLeavey spent almost thirty years collecting photographs, amassing a world-class ensemble of prints by some of the medium’s most significant figures. These include William Henry Fox Talbot, Charles Clifford, Francis Frith, Eugène Atget, Berenice Abbott, Bill Brandt, Dorothea Lange, Robert Frank, and Joel-Peter Witkin. McLeavey also collected related examples of photo-media, such as photogravures by Léon Vidal, James Nasmyth, and Loewy and Puiseaux, and lithographs by Joseph Beuys, Barbara Kruger and Sherrie Levine. In addition, he acquired numerous examples of New Zealand photographs, from ambrotypes and albumen prints to contemporary art.

McLeavey claimed that ‘collections are essentially maps of the self. A diary of the self. They reflect back the lives of the collectors.’ Still looking takes up this proposition, tracing the trajectory of McLeavey’s own collecting and measuring it against his itinerant childhood, his Catholicism, and his various intellectual, emotional and aesthetic interests. Welcoming the opportunity to pursue art works that he wasn’t selling himself, McLeavey tended to collect particular photographers in depth and after considerable research and consideration. Most of his photographs were acquired from leading dealers in the United States and are among the finest prints by these artists that were available. McLeavey also framed each photograph in an individually designed molding, accentuating certain aspects of each image and imposing a personal perspective on the viewing experience.

The exhibition features an array of photographic images in a variety of media, along with letters and catalogues related to McLeavey’s purchases, providing a unique opportunity to reflect on the nature of collecting and to invite each visitor to ask what their own ‘last photograph’ might be.

An illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition, with an essay and annotated list of works by the curators. This has been published with funding from the Ronald Woolf Memorial Endowment, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, and the Wellington Institute of Technology. The publication is available for sale at Adam Art Gallery or online here.

 

Media release for Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph here.

Read Deidra Sullivan’s essay ‘Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph’ on PhotoForum here.

 


 

Detail of, Dane Mitchell, <i>Meander Collection</i>, 2015, c-print, 250 x 380mm, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018

Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection
Curated by Sophie Thorn, Collection Manager
6 October – 20 December, 2018
Opening 5 October, 6pm

Installation view of Dane Mitchell, <em>Structural Formula, Water Molecule</em>, 2015, brass, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018, in the exhibition <em>Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection </em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of Dane Mitchell, <em>Structural Formula, Water Molecule</em>, 2015, brass, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018, in the exhibition <em>Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection </em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of Richard Frater, <em>Not Titled</em>, 2017, unique ambrotype (collodion positive print on glass), edition of 2, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2017; Phil Dadson, Two single-channel DVD videos from the <em>Polar Projects</em> series (2003-2005), <em>Flutter</em>, 2003-2004, 9mins, looped video/sound work, This work is dedicated to Apsley Cherry Garrard , and <em>Aerial Farm</em>, 2003-2004, 12mins, looped video/sound work, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2011; and Dane Mitchell, <em>Structural Formula, Water Molecule</em>, 2015, brass, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018, in the exhibition <em>Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection </em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of Simon Ingram, <em>Aldra Island</em>, 2011, oil on canvas, and <em>Ebino</em>, 2011, oil on canvas, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018, partial gift of the artist and Gow Langsford Gallery; and Dane Mitchell, <em>Structural Formula, Water Molecule</em>, 2015, brass, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018, in the exhibition <em>Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection </em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of Dane Mitchell, <em>Meander Collection</em>, 2015, c-print, framed, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018, in the exhibition <em>Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection </em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of Dane Mitchell, <em>Structural Formula, Water Molecule</em>, 2015, brass, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018; and Simon Ingram, <em>Aldra Island, 2011, oil on canvas, and <em>Ebino</em>, 2011, oil on canvas, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018, partial gift of the artist and Gow Langsford Gallery, in the exhibition <em>Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection </em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of Richard Frater, <em>Not Titled</em>, 2017, unique ambrotype (collodian positive print on glass), edition of 2, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2017, in the exhibition <em>Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection </em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi. Installation view of <em>Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection </em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi.Installation view of Fiona Connor, <em>A Letter to the Unwritten Future July 10, 2009 –</em>, A4 text page, website, www.alettertotheunwrittenfuture.org, Considered item Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, proposal pending 2018. In the exhibition <em>Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection </em>, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi.

Solid State brings together a selection of recent additions to the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection by six contemporary New Zealand artists. Presenting works by Phil Dadson, Fiona Connor, Richard Frater, Simon Ingram, Daniel Malone and Dane Mitchell, Solid State explores research based approaches to art making that delve into fields of knowledge such as chemistry, physics, electronics and environmental sustainability. It demonstrates how the art collection seeks to build meaningful connections to other disciplines in the university context.

In the physical sciences there are four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas and plasma. When something is in a ‘solid state’ its molecules are tightly packed together; it can hold its shape and has a definite volume. All the works in this exhibition can be described as solids because they take a material form, whether this is a painted surface, a brass ring, framed image, projector, TV screen, iPad, sheet of paper, or glass brick. However, each work also results from, refers to, or instantiates other less tangible states. Dane Mitchell’s brass rings are solid representations of the molecular structure of water; Simon Ingram’s abstract paintings were made by a machine programmed to react to low-frequency radio signals; and Philip Dadson’s videos materialise sound by snagging Antarctic wind in wires and fabric exposed to the elements on the ice. Even more complex are works by Richard Frater, who has cast a ring out of the silver extracted from 16mm film, that is then reproduced through the exposure to light of a wet plate coated with silver nitrate, and Daniel Malone, who cast a glass brick by melting and reforming the shards of a window he broke with a clay version of the same object. While Fiona Connor compiles data about the Adam Art Gallery’s building in order to draw attention to the energy it consumes.

Though highly selective, these works are indicative of the means by which artists today explore the world around them. Finding form for the complexity of material existence and embedding objects and images with encoded histories through transformational processes, their art making can be thought of as another mode of research, a kind of material thinking that is at home in the university.

Title image: Dane Mitchell, Meander Collection (detail), 2015, c-type print, 250 x 380mm, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018


The public programme associated with the exhibitions here.

For further information and press inquiries, please contact Stephen Cleland, stephen.cleland@vuw.ac.nz.