The Adam Art Gallery, in partnership with City Gallery Wellington, the New Zealand Film Archive and Massey University presented Telecom Prospect 2004—a diverse and dynamic selection of works by New Zealand’s most innovative and engaging artists.

For the Adam Art Gallery, curator Emma Bugden selected works which drew on the Gallery’s unique architectural spaces. They included Ralph Hotere’s painting, White Drip, which is an incisive critique of Paul Holmes’ infamous “cheeky darky” comment; Mark Curtis’ expansive carpet of glitter titled Ultra Glister; and Francis Upritchard’s Shrunken Heads, which reference the Maori tradition of moko mokai (preserving the heads of the dead) and respond to the now controversial collecting policies and practices of Victorian museums.
Bugden also selected an installation by internationally renowned artist, Bill Culbert, alongside diarist multimedia investigations by emerging Thai/New Zealand video artist Waroonwan Thongvanit.

Following on from the success of the inaugural contemporary arts survey exhibition Prospect 2001, Telecom Prospect 2004 offered a new perspective or ‘snapshot’ of the recent developments in the visual arts of this country.

This overview of new art from New Zealand reflected on the breadth of this country’s visual arts practices through the inclusion of over forty artists, both emerging and established, working in a wide range of media including video, painting, installation and sculpture.