Conversation Pieces - Collaborative Works

20 December 2002 - 19 January 2003 in the Hirschfeld Gallery

'the arts aspire, if not to take one another’s place, at least reciprocally to lend one another new powers’ Baudelaire

Art making need not be seen as a solitary activity. Besides drawing on a myriad of sources—images, writings, music, encounters, ruptures, conversations—artists engage and converse with one another. In fact creative collaboration has long been a fixture in New Zealand art with Colin McCahon using the words of John Caselberg, Ralph Hotere collaborating with Bill Culbert and Bill Manhire, Julia Morrison with fashion designer Martin Grant.

Conversation Pieces, the third in the Michael Hirschfeld Gallery’s series of end of year group exhibitions, takes up this social aspect of art making with 8 collaborative works made by 19 participants. Pairs or trios of visual artists, writers and designers were invited to collaborate on a work that in the end would reflect, in the spirit of the festive season’s goodwill, a lively exchange of ideas and many conversations.

Each collaboration explores the creative intersections between different disciplines and mediums. Painting and writing come together, as do sculpture and architecture, dance and film. Art, science and technology mingle, and poetry and typography combine with ceramics.

Some participants had never met yet alone worked together before Conversation Pieces, while the invitation to work collaboratively prompted others to merge an existing friendship with a new creative working relationship. Some people had worked together before, but not as partners in the equal exchange of ideas and making that collaboration requires. For some collaborators the success of their new working relationships has led them to begin planning future joint projects.

Rebecca Wilson