City Gallery

Past exhibition

Morgan Jones: Pitfall

7 December 1987–14 February 1988

What if the entrance were to be unlocked and you were persuaded to go down the steps and into the tunnel?
—Morgan Jones

Christchurch sculptor Morgan Jones creates an installation for the lawn in front of Wellington City Central Library. Pitfall continues his inquiry into the limits of personal freedom. The large wooden structure is made from tanalised pine and galvanised iron, materials said to embody the New Zealand environment. Words are stencilled onto it: 'Enter' and 'Entrance'. Steps invite audience participation. A doorway suggests it might be a portal to an underground tunnel or zone but the door is bolted shut. Pitfall is a red herring. Nearby a wooden hatch is stencilled 'Exit/No Entry'. Through a portal in the door is an image of a figure. Jones was raised in London during World War II and vividly remembers the blitz and school days spent in shelters. In the gallery brochure, he says, 'Such themes as ascent and descent—and imprisonment—have been running through my work for the past twenty years. I am interested in how much freedom we really have. Is freedom, after all, simply a state of mind?'