Stimulating Safari

I was reminded by a friend’s blog post that it’s been months (maybe a year?) since I took a free guided tour of Te Puna o Waiwhetū the Christchurch Art Gallery. I did pop in to see the recent Louise Henderson exhibition, intending to go back later for another look, but this didn’t happen.

Yesterday’s dreary weather suggested a visit to Turanga to change library books, and I timed it to coincide with the 11am free tour of the Art Gallery where the foyer was busy with a number of people in wheelchairs. It turned out that there was a tour for people with dementia and their carers at the same time, but our tour attracted just four people – an ideal-sized group. These days I’m not comfortable standing for very long, but the gallery has plenty of seating. They even supply folding chairs you can carry around with you if you need them. We saw new exhibitions as well as checking out Persistent Encounters a display with old favourites from the gallery collection.

Max Gimblett, born in Aotearoa and now living in New York, donated 200 of his works on paper to the gallery, and some of these are currently in the Ocean Wheel exhibition. Max works with geometric figures, quatrefoils, and ensos (Zen circles of enlightenment).

Enso series by Max Gimblett

It was interesting to learn that he creates the whole picture in his mind before quickly putting brush to paper. The one on the right made me wonder whether perhaps he might be left-handed. Our guide didn’t know, but if I went another time and watched the video of Max I might find out. Or maybe he’s ambidextrous?

Te Wheke: Pathways across Oceania shows items from the gallery’s collection by Pacific artists. Te Wheke means octopus in te reo Māori, and the exhibits are in eight rooms.

‘We are the small axe’ by Robin White and Ruha Fifita

We are the small axe is striking, with political messages.

‘etu iti by Ani O’Neill

I liked ‘etu iti, the wide smile, by Ani O’Neill. It’s inspired by sacred bundles of sticks bound with fine feathers which were collected from Hawai’i long ago and are now held in the Cambridge (UK) Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Ani often works collaboratively and for this piece she was assisted by Cambridge school children.

This was a stimulating and enjoyable hour. I found that the gallery also has a free Walking Meditation every Friday lunchtime until the end of November – an introduction to mindfulness which sounds attractive.

So many works that you can see
we’re lucky that it’s all for free