Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery

Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances)

Turumeke Harrington

Yolunda Hickman

Sonya Lacey

Rozana Lee

Grant Lingard

Vivian Lynn

Allan McDonald

Emma McIntyre

Next Spring

Layla Rudneva-Mackay

Richard Shepherd

James Tapsell-Kururangi

curated by Christina Barton, Millie Riddell, and Sophie Thorn

18 June – 22 August 2021

…caesuras serve as techniques for modifying subjectivity, activating a process that disrupts perception and feeling and can ultimately generate a transformation, a new way of becoming.

Paul Preciado, Artforum, 2020

A collective pause, a moment to turn inwards – Crossings began with a reflection on the disruptions of 2020. As we shared the experiences of a global pandemic, of shifting political landscapes and transformative action, 2020 was also a time of interiority, of modified subjectivities and heightened anxieties as global lockdowns forced us to turn inwards. Together we withdrew from the world; our most intimate relationships were confined to our bubbles or existed only on screen.

Crossings was a group show sparked by these intimacies and distances. It brought together a range of artists and works that registered the polarities of inside and outside, closeness and distance, health and illness and the impacts of larger external forces on our collective subjectivities. But it was not a show about the pandemic. The artists selected worked in a variety of media, were of different generations, had different life experiences and cultural backgrounds. Few of the works were made during or about lockdown. Instead, the show explored how objects, images, and materials carry meanings that are opaque, at the edge of conscious thought, that suggest rather than proclaim. They niggled at the edge of knowing, to articulate the promise and fear of a threshold state.

The works in the exhibition included meditations on public and private spaces and our movements between them; on the body in states of illness, pain, pleasure, reproduction and death; on mobility and change in the face of political and economic turmoil, and on the inevitable impact of an unseen threat that has changed everything. They asked: how can these intimate experiences, fraught relationships, larger forces and their attendant effects be communicated in an art work?

Crossings included moving image work from current Walters Prize finalist Sonya Lacey and the first New Zealand screening of Philip Scheffner and Merle Kröger’s filmwork, Havarie, 2016; installations by Next Spring, Grant Lingard, Turumeke Harrington, Yolunda Hickman and Rozana Lee; an artist book by Vivian Lynn; paintings by Emma McIntyre and Layla Rudneva-Mackay; photographic series by Allan McDonald and Richard Shepherd.

Again, Grandmother, Grey Street, 2019-2021, an illustrated text by James Tapsell Kururangi can be accessed here (contains graphic content). This is the artist’s contribution to Crossings, and it was on his request that this is only accessible as a PDF via the Gallery’s website.

Online catalogue

Media release

Public programme pdf

Events:

Wednesdays at the Adam: Forugh Farrokhzad, the House is Black, 1962.

28 July 2021

Wednesdays at the Adam: Laura Waddington, Border, 2004

14 July 2021

Wednesdays at the Adam: Todd Haynes, Safe, 1995.

30 June 2021

Media & Downloads:

Listen: Laundry Day | Episode 1: Co-curator Sophie Thorn with artist Richard Shepherd

Listen: Laundry Day | Episode 2: Laura Preston with Boaz Levin

Listen: Laundry Day | Episode 3: Co-curator Millie Riddell with artists Tui Harrington and Layla Rudneva-Mackay

Listen: Laundry Day | Episode 4: Artist Emma McIntyre with gallerist Sarah Hopkinson

Listen: Laundry Day | Episode 5: Tina Barton with artists Sonya Lacey and Allan McDonald

Listen: Laundry Day | Episode 6: On Distance - Boaz Levin

Read: Ashleigh Young, 'Magic Eye'. This text was written for the exhibition Crossings and read by the author at the opening on 18 June 2021.

Read: James Tapsell-Kururangi, 'Again, Grandmother, Grey Street'

Shop:

Next Spring: Boaz Levin, 'On Distance', Berlin, September 2020

A large patchwork banner of fluoro yellow, pink and orange squares, hanging in a white walled, black floored gallery

Turumeke Harrington, Longer than I can remember, 2020. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

A flat brown and white artwork on a low black bench table on a wooden floor.

Vivian Lynn, Threshold, 1983/1996. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

A flat brown and white book-like artwork on a low black bench table.

A wider view of the gallery, with a flat brown and white artwork on a low black bench table in the foreground and images on the walls.

Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

Wide shot of upper and lower chartwell gallery with square images on the walls

Upstairs: Allan McDonald, Here and Now, 2010–20; and Sonya Lacey, Obstructions, 2020. Downstairs: Emma McIntyre, The cove, 2020. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

a row of framed black and white photographs of shop fronts with newspaper on their windows

Allan McDonald, Here and Now, 2010–20. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

two framed black and white photographs of shop fronts with newspaper on their windows

Allan McDonald, Sunday Star Times, 22.04.2018 – 15.07.2018, Grey Lynn and Wairarapa Times-Age, 21.4.2018 – 24.12.2018, Featherston. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

a large square TV screen on a white wall, with black and blue geometric patterns on them.

Sonya Lacey, Obstructions, 2020. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

purple and orange fabric panels in a dim gallery space

Rozana Lee, Dwelling: Being in Time and Place,2018, Moonlit Night,2020, Waiting for Spring,2020-2021, Sunrise Repaints the Picture of Rebirth 2021. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

A painting of 4 colourful smudgy faces, mounted on a white wall

Layla Rudneva-Mackay, Glazed bunch, 2018. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

a square painting with dark smudgey colours and a yellow outline of a circe and joyful turquoise eyes and mouth, mounted on a white wall

Layla Rudneva-Mackay, Dark moon, 2017. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

a dark room with black walls, with blocks of small white text spot-lit on the walls. A desk and chair sit in the middle of the room.

Next Spring, On Distance, 2020. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

a black wall, with a small white paper booklet mounted on metal pegs. The booklet cover reads "on distance"

Philip Scheffner, Havarie, 2016. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

a projection of blue water and a floating black object, with a small subtitle reading "That's good"

Yolunda Hickman, Clearings, 2019. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

Richard Shepherd, Crisis meeting, 2017. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

Richard Shepherd, Crisis meeting (detail), 2017. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

Grant Lingard, Swan song, 1995-6; Emma McIntyre, The cove, 2020. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

Grant Lingard, Swan song (detail), 1995-6. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

Emma McIntyre, Veils, 2020; and The cove, 2020. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker

Emma McIntyre, The cove, 2020; and Love in a time of iridescence, 2020. Installation view, Crossings (a group show about intimacies and distances), Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington, 2021. Photo: Ted Whitaker