Falling Shadows
Airini Beautrais, Christine McFetridge and Virginia Woods-Jack
 
Falling Shadows brings together photography and poetry that responds to a collective interest in belonging, familial identity and memory. And in recording those closest to them, the artists explore how personal narratives can overlap.
 
McFetridge’s photographs aim to rediscover her late-grandfather, Colin Coutts, through his garden and by borrowing from a series of images taken by him. Woods-Jack considers the complexities of growing up through the perspectives of her children with pictures from Even while you watch I am fleeting and a selection from her archive of work made as a teenager.
 
Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark, writes Rebecca Solnit, That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go. Everything is temporary here; and, though still, these quiet works are symbols of passing time.
 
A limited-edition photobook published by Bad News Books will be available, featuring poetry by Airini Beautrais.

Biographies:
 
Airini Beautrais is a writer and teacher based in Whanganui. She writes poetry, short fiction, essays and criticism. Her work has appeared in a range of journals and anthologies in NZ and elsewhere. Her first book Secret Heart was named Best First Book of Poetry in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2007; it was followed by Western Line (2001), Dear Neil Roberts (2013) and Flow: Whanganui River Poems (2017).

Christine McFetridge is a photographer and writer represented by M.33, Melbourne. Influenced by Roland Barthes' evocation of a winter garden in Camera Lucida, the ideas of seeking out familiarity after a traumatic event and tensions between absence and presence are ongoing areas of research and interest in her work, particularly following her experience of the Ōtautahi/Christchurch earthquakes. Solo exhibitions include Citizens of the Park, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Naarm/Melbourne (2018) and The Winter Garden, Trocadero Art Space, Naarm/Melbourne (2017) and In Situ Photo Project, Ōtautahi/Christchurch (2017). In 2018, The Winter Garden was published as a limited edition photobook by M.33 and Bad News Books with support from Creative New Zealand. She is currently an MFA by Research candidate at RMIT University and a founding member of Women in Photography NZ & AU.

Virginia Woods-Jack studied photography at the University of Creative Arts, England (1995-1998) and holds a Masters of Fine Art with distinction from CoCA at Massey University (2009).
British born, Woods-Jack has lived in Wellington for the last 16 years creating bodies of work where notions of time, place, memory and personal experience and how we experience the photographic image are recurring themes. She’s been commissioned to produce images for international publications including Harpers NY and TIME magazine and has exhibited at The City Gallery, The NZ Portrait Gallery, The Engine Room, Enjoy Gallery, The Month of Photography Los Angeles, Rencontre Arles and The Auckland Festival of Photography amongst others. She has also been a finalist in the NZ Contemporary Art Award.
Woods-Jack is an avid fan of the photobook and has self-published 4 handmade books to date with 2 more publications being released in 2020.
She is also the founder of Women in Photography NZ and AU.
 

Mouths of Illusion: Beyond the Machine will be installed in our photographic studio - Courtenay Studios - which is right next door to the main gallery room - for the duration of the Fringe Festival.

Unfortunately, Nick Kealey will not be available during MOI so the exhibition will be run principally by Nicholas Frost. The hours are 10am to 10pm daily.

We're having an opening for MOI on Friday 28th February, 7pm to 8.30pm. You're most welcome to come along.

Opening Friday 6th December, 2019, at 5.30pm, we're having a group exhibition of 21 photographs by a representative selection of artists; Mark Beehre, Peter Black, Kerry-Ann Boyle, Lisa Clunie, Siren Deluxe,  James Gilberd, Alannah Gunter, Su Hendeles, Karen Lee, Mary Macpherson, Mark Marriott, Lucien Rizos, Andrew Ross, Cathy Tuato'o Ross, Heinz Sobiecki, Ellen Smith, Christine Szabados, Julian Ward, Hans Weston, John Williams, and Alan Wylde. (These photos will have to fit into room 3, somehow...)
Kedron Parker will be DJ-ing during the exhibition opening.

Mary Macpherson interviews James Gilberd for Photoforum on Photospace's 21 years

Also (screening in the studio during the opening only), there will be a slide-show of all of the exhibition posters dating back to December, 1998, which is a way of acknowledging all of the artists who have exhibited during the gallery's 21-year history. Here is a list.

And on Saturday 7th December at 3pm we have a special musical performance by The Noveltones. Admission is $10, door sales only. Space is limited so come early. There will be no admission once the performance begins, as it's disruptive for others listening. Here's a sample.

2020 - The 21st group show runs till 25th January. Ripple Effect finishes 1st February. The gallery will be closed from 24th December to 6th January, inclusive. Viewing by appointment is available during this period - contact me by email only please; j.gilberd@xtra.co.nz