Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery

Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection

Fiona Connor

Phil Dadson

Richard Frater

Simon Ingram

Daniel Malone

Dane Mitchell

curated by Sophie Thorn

05 October – 20 December 2018

Solid State brought together a selection of recent additions to the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection by six contemporary New Zealand artists. Presenting works by Phil Dadson, Fiona Connor, Richard Frater, Simon Ingram, Daniel Malone and Dane Mitchell, Solid State explored research based approaches to art making that delve into fields of knowledge such as chemistry, physics, electronics and environmental sustainability, seeking to build meaningful connections to other disciplines in the university context.

In the physical sciences there are four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas and plasma. When something is in a ‘solid state’ its molecules are tightly packed together; it can hold its shape and has a definite volume. All the works in this exhibition can be described as solids because they take a material form, whether this is a painted surface, a brass ring, framed image, projector, TV screen, iPad, sheet of paper, or glass brick. However, each work also results from, refers to, or instantiates other less tangible states. Dane Mitchell’s brass rings are solid representations of the molecular structure of water; Simon Ingram’s abstract paintings were made by a machine programmed to react to low-frequency radio signals; and Phil Dadson’s videos materialise sound by snagging Antarctic wind in wires and fabric exposed to the elements on the ice. Even more complex are works by Richard Frater, who has cast a ring out of the silver extracted from 16mm film, that is then reproduced through the exposure to light of a wet plate coated with silver nitrate, and Daniel Malone, who cast a glass brick by melting and reforming the shards of a window he broke with a clay version of the same object. While Fiona Connor compiles data about the Adam Art Gallery’s building in order to draw attention to the energy it consumes.

Though highly selective, these works are indicative of the means by which artists today explore the world around them. Finding form for the complexity of material existence and embedding objects and images with encoded histories through transformational processes, their art making can be thought of as another mode of research, a kind of material thinking that is at home in the university.

This exhibition was staged concurrently with Still looking: Peter McLeavey and the last photograph.

Media release

Public programme pdf

Installation view of Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi.

Installation view, Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Installation view of Dane Mitchell, Structural Formula, Water Molecule, 2015, brass, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018, in the exhibition Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi.

Dane Mitchell, Structural Formula, Water Molecule, 2015, brass, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018. Installation view, Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Installation view, Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Installation view of Dane Mitchell, Meander Collection, 2015, c-print, framed, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018, in the exhibition Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi.

Dane Mitchell, Meander Collection, 2015, c-print, framed, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018. Installation view, Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Installation view of Simon Ingram, Aldra Island, 2011, oil on canvas, and Ebino, 2011, oil on canvas, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018, partial gift of the artist and Gow Langsford Gallery; and Dane Mitchell, Structural Formula, Water Molecule, 2015, brass, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2018, in the exhibition Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi.

Installation view, Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Installation view of Richard Frater, Not Titled, 2017, unique ambrotype (collodian positive print on glass), edition of 2, Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, purchased 2017, in the exhibition Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi.

Installation view, Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews

Installation view of Fiona Connor, A Letter to the Unwritten Future July 10, 2009 –, A4 text page, website, www.alettertotheunwrittenfuture.org, Considered item Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, proposal pending 2018. In the exhibition Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, 6 October – 20 December 2018, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi.

Fiona Connor, A Letter to the Unwritten Future July 10, 2009 –, A4 text page, website. Considered item Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, proposal pending 2018. Installation view, Solid State: Works from the Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2018. Photo: Shaun Matthews