Kermadec – Nine Artists in the South Pacific
Kermadec – Nine Artists in the South Pacific
City Gallery Wellington
4 October 2012–10 February 2013
Touring Venues
Hanga Roa Hall, Rapa Nui, Easter Island, 10 July 2012
Tjibaou Cultural Centre, Noumea, New Caledonia, 2015
Artists
Phil Dadson, Bruce Foster, Fiona Hall, Gregory O’Brien, Jason O’Hara, John Pule, John Reynolds, Elizabeth Thomson, Robin White
Kermadec – Nine Artists in the South Pacific was a project I worked on as co-curator with artist and curator Gregory O’Brien. The exhibition toured throughout the Pacific, and I was fortunate to work on three iterations of the project, beginning in Rapa Nui Easter Island and building to a major exhibition at City Gallery Wellington and later at the Tjibaou Cultural Centre in New Caledonia in 2015.
Exhibition Summary
In May 2011, nine artists voyaged, on the HMNZS Otago, from Devonport Naval Base in Auckland, north through the Kermadec region, toward the Kingdom of Tonga. These seariders were selected because of their connection to the Pacific—through ancestry and upbringing, art and interest. They were invited by Pew Environment Group’s Kermadec Initiative, which encourages protection of this heritage-rich and biologically diverse ocean environment as a sanctuary. Contained within New Zealand territorial waters, the Kermadec region is one of the few remaining near-pristine ocean sites on the planet. Its subtropical islands sit at the northernmost point of New Zealand's territory and have a history of Polynesian and European contact that has rarely registered in our national psyche. The week-long voyage provided an opportunity for the artists to experience the region's rolling seas, weather, and wildlife. The works they produced in response utilise an abundance of materials, methods, and ideas sourced from Pacific handcrafts, poetry, waiata, jewellery, maritime painting traditions, and scientific photography.
Exhibition Catalogue
Below are images of the exhibition at City Gallery Wellington and a readable PDF of the catalogue we created for the Rapa Nui Easter Island iteration of the exhibition:
