Wellington Museums Trust Annual Report 2006

THE YEAR’S
HIGHLIGHTS
uncomfortable overlaps between art, science and daily
life. Michael Smither: The Wonder Years was a major
touring exhibition from Auckland Art Gallery of one of
this country’s best loved painters and was also extremely
popular with Wellingtonians.
Another highlight was Yuk King Tan: Overflow, a gallerycommissioned
project by an artist described as one of
New Zealand’s hottest young talents. This installation
explored ideas about cultural identity, global politics,
trade, power and consumption.
Contrasting in style, Jane Pountney: Wade in the Water
paid tribute to one of Wellington’s foremost landscape
artists of recent decades, the late Jane Pountney (1949-
2004). Meanwhile Noel McKenna: Sheltered Life was
another gallery-commissioned project and was curated
by Gregory O’Brien. This explored various notions of
home through paintings and sculptural works, including
McKenna’s ceramics which were inscribed with poetry by
Wellingtonian Jenny Bornholdt.
Partnership with Te Papa
In a groundbreaking partnership, the gallery and
the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa gave
audiences the chance to see many contemporary New
Zealand artworks from Te Papa’s visual art collections.
Small World, Big Town: Contemporary Art from Te Papa
was curated by Gregory O’Brien, Emma Bugden and
Natasha Conland. A key feature of the exhibition was
the first New Zealand showing of Te Papa’s recent major
acquisition, Michael Stevenson’s This is the Trekka.
This installation project was originally produced for
the New Zealand pavilion at the 2003 Venice Biennale,
for which City Gallery Wellington (in partnership with
Creative New Zealand) was the organising gallery.
Wellington art on show
Another lively year for City Gallery Wellington’s Michael
Hirschfeld Gallery celebrated established local artists
as well as emerging talent. Highlights were Designs on
Antarctica, for which Raewyn Atkinson created a selection
of ceramics featuring scenes of Antarctic history and
landscape. In Muttonbirds - part of a story, a poetic sequence
of 30 photographs, Bruce Connew documented the yearly
migration of the muttonbirds to their nesting sites and
the muttonbirders who follow them there. Connew’s photoessay
was given a rare two-page review by Time.
Diversity at Capital E
Capital E’s vibrant events programme included everything
from live music concert DMV and Battle of Young Wits to
The Big Halloween. A new event, Taste Capital E, opened
the whole facility free to the public as part of the wider
Wellington Big Look See arts open day in May.
Wellington school children paraded their own artistic
‘“body props” live on stage in the first Capital E Excessive
Accessories Showcase Evening, as part of last year’s
Montana WOW® Awards Show celebrations. A new annual
event offered to schools, this was produced by Capital E in
partnership with WOW® in Wellington and the Wellington
City Council, and proved extremely popular.
On Our Street | Photo by Mark Coote
BOXES | Photo by John Nicholson
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