Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery

Inhabiting Space

Juliet Carpenter

Evangeline Riddiford-Graham

Julian Dashper

Mike Parr

Campbell Patterson

Fred Sandback

Sriwhana Spong

curated by Stephen Cleland

13 May – 17 July 2016

Spurred by the dynamic architecture of the Athfield-designed building, this exhibition brought together seven artists whose works set up situations that enable viewers to question what it means to ‘inhabit space’. A prompt for the project, and a starting point for the exhibition, is an installation—the largest of its kind to be realised in Australasia— by the late American post-minimalist Fred Sandback that links the three levels of the Gallery by the simple deployment of coloured yarn.

Sandback refined an approach to sculpture that hovers between the material and the immaterial. Over his lifetime, he developed a procedure based on drawings that can be executed in response to actual spaces. The resulting installations construct virtual planes and shapes that both draw attention to themselves and their surroundings. In Sandback’s words, his sculpture attempts to ‘assert a certain place or volume in its full materiality without occupying and obscuring it.’ In the process, the viewer becomes intensely aware of their surroundings. In the case of the Adam Art Gallery installation, the sculpture can only be experienced in stages as visitors move up and down the building and to and from the work.

Sandback’s stated attempt to create ‘a drawing that is habitable’ is key to the other works in the exhibition. By means of bodily actions, vocal performance, spoken and written text, drawn line, lighting and camerawork, the works of Mike Parr, Julian Dashper, Sriwhana Spong, Campbell Patterson, and Juliet Carpenter and Evangeline Riddiford-Graham each develop distinct engagements with both actual and represented architectural spaces. Orchestrated across the spaces of the Gallery, their works invite us to consider not only the other spaces referenced in their works but their immediate in-situ contexts.

A subtext of this selection is the re-realisation of works that exist as propositions or proposals, or which were conceived for other situations. The contention is that the works have the capacity to communicate an idea or thought from one place to another; to create complex situations within which the past and present, here and there, then and now, viewer and object, space and place intersect.

Inhabiting Space was generously supported by the Chartwell Trust.

Exterior gallery view, Inhabiting Space exhibition at the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington (photo: Shaun Waugh)

Exterior view, Inhabiting Space, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2016. Photo: Shaun Waugh

Detail view of Fred Sandback, Untitled (Triangle with Broken Leg) 1988, acrylic yarn. Courtesy of the Fred Sandback Estate, Jensen Gallery, Sydney and Fox/Jensen, Auckland. In the exhibition Inhabiting Space at the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington (photo: Shaun Waugh)

Fred Sandback, Untitled (Triangle with Broken Leg) 1988, acrylic yarn. Courtesy of the Fred Sandback Estate, Jensen Gallery, Sydney and Fox/Jensen, Auckland. Installation view, Inhabiting Space, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2016. Photo: Shaun Waugh

Installation view of Fred Sandback, Untitled (Triangle with Broken Leg) 1988, acrylic yarn. Courtesy of the Fred Sandback Estate, Jensen Gallery, Sydney and Fox/Jensen, Auckland. In the exhibition Inhabiting Space at the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington (photo: Shaun Waugh)

Installation of Julian Dashper Untitled (Black: for Fred Sandback, 2001–08) 2016, editions #2–10, black coloured pencil on wall, and Untitled (Blue: for Fred Sandback, 2001–08) 2016, editions #2–10, blue coloured pencil on wall. Courtesy of the Estate of Julian Daspher and Michael Lett, Auckland. Photographed during exhibition opening for Inhabiting Space, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 13/05/16. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Installation view of Julian Dashper, Untitled (Black: for Fred Sandback, 2001–08) 2016, editions #2–10, black coloured pencil on wall, and Untitled (Blue: for Fred Sandback, 2001–08) 2016, editions #2–10, blue coloured pencil on wall. Courtesy of the Estate of Julian Daspher and Michael Lett, Auckland. Installation view, Inhabiting Space, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2016. Photo: Shaun Waugh

Installation view of Sriwhana Spong, The Fourth Notebook, 2015, HD video, 8 mins, 36 secs. Courtesy of Michael Lett, Auckland. Dancer: Benjamin Ord. Commissioned by Carriageworks, Sydney. In the exhibition Inhabiting Space at the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington (photo: Shaun Waugh)

Sriwhana Spong, The Fourth Notebook, 2015, HD video, 8 mins, 36 secs. Courtesy of Michael Lett, Auckland. Dancer: Benjamin Ord. Commissioned by Carriageworks, Sydney. Installation view, Inhabiting Space, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2016. Photo: Shaun Waugh

Video still, Sriwhana Spong, The Fourth Notebook, 2015, HD video, 8 mins, 36 secs. Courtesy of Michael Lett, Auckland. Dancer: Benjamin Ord. Commissioned by Carriageworks, Sydney.

Detail gallery view of Inhabiting Space at the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington (photo: Shaun Waugh)

Installation view, Inhabiting Space, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2016. Photo: Shaun Waugh

Installation view of Juliet Carpenter & Evangeline Riddiford Graham, Luma Turf, 2013, HD video, 7 mins, 27 secs, courtesy of the artists. In the exhibition Inhabiting Space at the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington (photo: Shaun Waugh)

Juliet Carpenter & Evangeline Riddiford Graham, Luma Turf, 2013, HD video, 7 mins, 27 secs, courtesy of the artists. Installation view, Inhabiting Space, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2016. Photo: Shaun Waugh

Installation view, Juliet Carpenter, Summer of Supine, 2015, single channel video projection, coloured lighting, courtesy of the artist. In the exhibition Inhabiting Space at the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington (photo: Shaun Waugh)

Juliet Carpenter, Summer of Supine, 2015, single channel video projection, coloured lighting, courtesy of the artist. Installation view, Inhabiting Space, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2016. Photo: Shaun Waugh

Installation view, Mike Parr, Facts about the Room, 1970/2016, vinyl lettering on wall, collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. In the exhibition Inhabiting Space at the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington (photo: Shaun Waugh)

Mike Parr, Facts about the Room, 1970/2016, vinyl lettering on wall, collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki. Installation view, Inhabiting Space, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2016. Photo: Shaun Waugh

Campbell Patterson, Untitled (Sing), 2014, two-channel HD video, 59 mins, 58 secs, courtesy of Michael Lett, Auckland. In the exhibition Inhabiting Space at Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington (photo: Shaun Waugh)

Campbell Patterson, Untitled (Sing), 2014, two-channel HD video, 59 mins, 58 secs, courtesy of Michael Lett, Auckland. Installation view, Inhabiting Space, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2016. Photo: Shaun Waugh