City Gallery

Past exhibition

Richard Reddaway: The Wieskirche

22 October–18 November 2004

It may be a popular plant, but creeping ivy is considered a weed by the Department of Conservation. ‘When spreading unchecked, it can smother all plants in its path. It can develop enough weight to bring down branches or even whole trees’, DOC argues. Wellington's Richard Reddaway mounts photos of ivy taken in the Wellington town belt on a shallow boxy structure that climbs the gallery’s walls and ceiling, spreading its tendrils, like a virus. At once regular and random, this viral structure is supported here and there with clamps. The work is named after a rococo church in Wies, Germany, whose deceptively plain exterior conceals an intensely florid decorative interior.