03 Magazine: November 03, 2023

Feature | Magazine 35
Tell us more about the Living Room exhibition…
For Living Room, 10 artists respond to Sir Miles’ remarkable architecture and the use for
which it was designed.
Drawing on our personal and cultural associations with the objects and architecture
of daily life, the exhibition features work that responds to the notion of being lived with,
considering how we design and adorn domestic spaces as an act of self-expression.
We’re incredibly happy with how this show looks in the space – like a bombastic living
room brought together by some of Aotearoa’s best makers, a majority of whom are
Canterbury based. It looks and feels like a place you’d want to live.
“Christchurch is
an important and
distinct city in
Aotearoa, especially
for design and
architecture.”
A previous exhibition showcased Sir Miles’ watercolour paintings...
Throughout his architectural career, Sir Miles Warren produced watercolours that both
documented and promoted his buildings. As a painter, his perspective was avowedly
architectural, as was demonstrated by the watercolours discovered at Ōhinetahi
[Warren’s historic house and garden in Governors Bay] and exhibited in Grand Tourist at
the Sir Miles Warren Gallery.
It was special to facilitate returning these works to a space Miles lived and worked in,
and to be visited by so many people who knew him.
The exhibition was curated by John Walsh, who is predominantly a writer specialising
in architecture and is someone we love working with.
Will there be further exhibitions connected to Sir Miles/the space, that you know of?
Maybe! Probably, actually. The design and history of the space is so strong and present,
we’d hazard to say that any work we exhibit is in conversation with the space and the
legacy of Sir Miles Warren.