Community Garden

Wayne Barrar, Champion's Board at Koi Carp Classic, Waikato, 2008. Colour pigment print. Image courtesy of the artist.
Community Garden, installation view, 2010. Photo: Andrew Beck.
Jenny Gillam in collaboration with Steve Trewick, In Search of Self Perception, 2010. Image courtesy of the artists. Photo: Andrew Beck.
Rob Cherry, Meadow Fresh, 2009. Image courtesy of the artist and Suite Gallery. Photo: Andrew Beck.
Jenny Gillam in collaboration with Steve Trewick, In Search of Self Perception, 2010. image courtesy of the artists. Photo: Andrew Beck.

7 May - 20 June 2010 in the Hirschfeld Gallery

A community is a group with common interests, which is often the outcome of sharing space. In this exhibition four artists shared the gallery, along with an awareness of their position in a larger communal space – the natural environment. Multiple definitions of community were explored: a human social group, a collection of interacting insects, a species of fish which threatens the habitat of others, a set of like objects which trace human impact. Community Garden considered how each group is distinct, yet also shares resources, faces common risks, and claims their territory in similar ways.

Wayne Barrar’s six works came from a series addressing biohazards in New Zealand. Here the focus was Koi carp, an introduced species that causes severe problems in New Zealand waterways, particularly in shallow lakes where they create their own landscapes, affect water quality and compete with native species. His work documents the efforts being taken to remedy the impacts of these fish through reducing numbers of Koi carp.

Rob Cherry’s work A Beautiful Day for Walking Away traced a line around the perimeter of the gallery. The work was made from found plastic objects, which the artist has gathered from a local beach, Evans Bay. Detritus from the local rubbish dump blows and collects along this shore, and Cherry has completed a series of projects where he amasses objects of a particular colour for a set period of time. This work is the result of 16 half hour periods, total 8 hours of collecting – the equivalent of one working day.

In Search of Self-Perception, Jenny Gillam’s vivarium (a work created in collaboration with evolutionist Steve Trewick) housed a community of stick insects. The artist collected and nurtured these creatures over a period of months, observing their social interactions and responses to environmental conditions. Her duty of care continued through this exhibition, and drew attention to the ways we perceive and understand nature in a world from which ‘wilderness’ is disappearing, becoming a concept rather than an experience.

Andy Palmer’s photographs were from a series focused on the Community Gardens at Tanera Park in Brooklyn. He visited the gardens monthly for a period of 15 months, photographing the same two views each time. These site portraits formed a chart of the changes over time, showing Palmer’s interest in tracing the evolution of a cultivated site, the relation between urban and ‘natural’ environments, and the landscape as a site of production.

Public Programmes

Artists' Talk—Wayne Barrar and Jenny Gillam
Friday 14 May 2010 12:30pm

Media Release

Community Garden