Designs for Living

23 October - 17 December 2010/25 January - 6 March 2011

Louise Menzies Letters to Students of the Radiant Life 2010

Long Live the Modern New Zealand’s New Architecture 1904-1984
Mladen Bizumic
From Cube To Ball (Chapter 2)
Lisa Crowley National Projects
Louise Menzies Letters to Students of the Radiant Life

Designs for Living was a suite of four exhibitions that revisited twentieth-century modernism as it took shape in New Zealand. Drawing on visual and archival material and our built heritage, these projects sought to document certain features of this important artistic, architectural, social, technological and material legacy.

Designs for Living was developed around Long Live the Modern: New Zealand’s New Architecture 1904-1984, the exhibition curated by Julia Gatley and Bill McKay and toured by the Gus Fisher Gallery, The University of Auckland, brought attention to key buildings that have been identified as crucial to our modernist history. Organised under the aegis of DOCOMOMO, a world-wide organisation dedicated to documenting the achievements of the modern movement in architecture, the show drew attention to the particular contribution of New Zealand architecture to this project.

To complement this exhibition, the Adam Art Gallery invited three New Zealand artists to present chapters from their ongoing research into New Zealand’s modern history. Deploying different mediums and forms, and addressing strikingly different aspects of this legacy, artists Mladen Bizumic, Lisa Crowley and Louise Menzies offer richly various responses to modernism’s social and artistic ideals.

In realising these projects the Adam Art Gallery gratefully acknowledges the support of the J. C Beaglehole Room, Victoria University of Wellington Special Collections, Creative New Zealand and Weleda New Zealand Ltd, Gus Fisher Gallery, National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries, The University of Auckland and Coopers Creek.

Adam Art Gallery October 2010-March 2011 Public Programme [PDF]

Review Mladen Bizumic’s unique book From Cube to Ball: Edition of None 2010

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Mladen Bizumic and Robin Skinner in conversation 23 October 2010 [mp3]

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Architectural Modernism feature on Radio New Zealand 6 November 2010 [mp3]

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The Ready Made Home Pre-fabrication in New Zealand discussion 5 November 2010 [mp3]

 

Designs for Living was accompanied by an online publication on Lisa Crowley’s National Projects.