Photospace Gallery - contemporary New Zealand photography
  • Exhibitions
  • Artists
  • About
  • Links
  • Photo books
  • Blog
  • A Month of Sundays - Responses to the Covid-19 Lockdown

Sue Guest - 'Into the Everyday - Scenes from the Wellington Bush' - 9th June-3rd July 2017, Photospace Gallery, Wellington

15/5/2017

0 Comments

 

Gallery talk by Sue Guest: 1pm, Saturday 1st July.

Note: this exhibition is now extended till 29th July, 2017.

'Into the everyday: scenes from the Wellington bush'

How much does the unique landscape we live in form our character as a country? I have asked this question as I photographed these scenes from the bush taken in the western hills around Wellington.

Early European settlers found the sunless and impenetrable nature of the New Zealand bush oppressive and intimidating.  Because it was evergreen it was seen as dark and monotonous. And it was damp. Fuelled by promises of a green and pleasant land they set about clearing the forests to recreate the more refined fields of England, with deciduous trees.

Nearly a hundred years ago, when much of the bush had already been lost, early conservation groups began working to save some of the flora and fauna.

Now the opportunity to walk in the bush is seen as a chance to refresh ourselves and get back to nature. As a community, we are trying to retain and restore the remnants of what was lost and the Council and friends groups are planting trees and forming networks to kill pests.

Bush on the hills forms part of the backdrop to the city.  Even today, when you enter what remnants remain, the darkness and wildness is a strong presence.

 “There isn’t much colour in New Zealand… In New Zealand a geological and meteorological darkness has crept down from the hills and the wet ferns and seeped into the everyday.”
- Murray Bail, Australian writer.

There is, I propose, an essence of this bush landscape in our New Zealand character: the darkness. After all, black with the silver fern is our most recognised national symbol. The darkness seeps into our character – into the everyday.

The photographs have been printed on Epson Traditional Photo Paper
(a Fibre Photo Paper Base of 300 gsm, a 13mil thickness and acid and lignin free) with Epson's UltraChrome HD ink.

Artist info

Sue Guest is a Wellington based photographer. This is her first solo exhibition. She has exhibited in two group exhibitions at Photospace Gallery: 4 Photographers in 2015 and Prevailing Light in 2014. A number of works from her 2014 exhibition were purchased by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Bush scene in Wellington photographed by Sue Guest, Into the everyday - scenes from the Wellington bush, New Zealand bush lanscape photography, Photospace Gallery fine art photography New Zealand
Photo: Sue Guest
Bush scene in Wellington photographed by Sue Guest, Into the everyday - scenes from the Wellington bush, New Zealand bush lanscape photography, Photospace Gallery fine art photography New Zealand
Photo: Sue Guest
Bush scene in Wellington photographed by Sue Guest, Into the everyday - scenes from the Wellington bush, New Zealand bush lanscape photography, Photospace Gallery fine art photography New Zealand
Photo: Sue Guest
Bush scene in Wellington photographed by Sue Guest, Into the everyday - scenes from the Wellington bush, New Zealand bush lanscape photography, Photospace Gallery fine art photography New Zealand
Photo: Sue Guest
0 Comments

Samantha Matthews - 'Lambhill' - 20th May-5th June, 2017

4/5/2017

0 Comments

 
Samantha Matthews - Phone, Hallway, Lambhill, 2016, Photospace Gallery Wellington New Zealand
Samantha Matthews - Phone, Hallway, Lambhill, 2016
'Lambhill' is Samantha Matthews' first exhibition at Photospace Gallery.
The exhibition runs from Saturday 20th May to Tuesday 6th June, 2017 (extended a day as gallery closed on Queen's Birthday)


This collection of photographs explores the interior spaces of Lambhill Homestead. Through a personal photographic investigation, these quiet exposures attempt to reveal the many layers of time, history and memory present in this building.
For as long as I can remember I have been looking at the outside of Lambhill. Situated just off Warrengate Road near Fordell, it is visible from most parts of my parent’s farm, positioned high on a hill facing west toward Whanganui. It sits comfortably in the rural landscape just like the old hawthorn tree hedges that still line parts of the lanes and fences of the land. The trees now permanently bent in the prevailing westerly wind are slowly making their way closer to the earth, but the house still stands. Lambhill continues to hold a prominent part in the history of the rural area and in my own family history today.

First built in 1856 then rebuilt in 1881 by the Allison family, the property was sold to my Great-great grandfather Nathaniel Sutherland in 1886, who along with his brother farmed land in the surrounding district. It remained much in its original state over the following hundred and fifteen years, lived in by my Great-great Aunts for a long period of that time. Now owned by the Godfreys, for the past twelve years they have lived in the homestead, which is overflowing with New Zealand colonial history.

My personal connection to Lambhill is grounded by my Sutherland family history but even more so by its exterior physical presence in my life. My encounters with the interior of Lambhill have been brief in comparison, spread out over a long period of time. Others have mostly informed my ‘memories’ of the internal spaces of the house (my Grandma Lewanna’s recollections and my mothers stories from her school holidays spent with the old aunts). To enter the front door fresh without taking these stories and memories with me was impossible while undertaking this project. It was a challenge to separate out the familiar and unknown photographically, pushing my own sense of objectivity once again with the camera playing the role of facilitator of these memories both real and imagined.

Today the interior of the house is a unique space where the present, past and future is suspended in every room. The current owners have carefully preserved the building, complete with peeling wallpaper and creaky floorboards. No attempt has been made to cover up or hide its original being. This allows the visitor to experience the structure and appreciate the layers of history in its walls. Dispersed among the many rooms are combinations of historical photographs, found artefacts and personal family objects from the current inhabitants; reflecting Lambhill’s present embodiment as part home/part living museum. This dichotomy of states creates an intriguing space to engage with photographically.

The resulting works in this exhibition offer an intimate suggestion of the interior spaces of Lambhill. The prints are pinned directly to the gallery wall, connecting these works with the homeowner’s own interaction with materiality. By choosing to display these images in their raw physical form it creates a dialogue with the role of the photographic document in personal history and the everyday. Through carefully selecting an abstract view of the interior, details of texture and subtleties of light are exposed. This creates an open space where potential memories can be mediated, a space where a latent energy can be reengaged with in every moment of viewing. This level of interminable engagement and potential is what drives me to photograph. With Lambhill, where time stands still and moves forward again in the same instance, there could not be a better place to explore this facet of photography, especially since it is from within a part of my own family history.
 
Special thanks to Janette Godfrey for her support of this project

Peter Ireland's review of the Whanganui showing of this exhibition


Samantha Matthews - Wallpaper, Lambhill, 2016, Photospace Gallery, Wellington New Zealand fine art photography gallery NZ
Samantha Matthews - Wallpaper, Lambhill, 2016
Artist Bio – Samantha Matthews
 
Samantha Matthews is a photographer currently based in Dunedin, who grew up on a rose nursery and farm near Whanganui. Her present work deals with the role of place and the revisit within her photographic practice, which also seeks to continue a conversation with the nature of photography and its relationship to tension. She graduated with a Master of Art and Design degree with honours from AUT University in 2013, holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Visual Art from the Dunedin School of Art and a Bachelor of Applied Visual Imaging degree from UCOL. Since completing her Masters she has regularly held solo exhibitions in both Dunedin and her hometown Whanganui including ‘Don’t Quite Belong’ (2014) and ‘From Fordell’ (2015). Samantha has won several awards from the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography Iris awards and in 2014 was selected as a finalist for the National Contemporary Art Award.

Samantha Matthews - Phone, Hallway, Lambhill 2016, Photospace Gallery Wellington, fine art photography in New Zealand
Samantha Matthews - Phone, Hallway, Lambhill, 2016
0 Comments

Mary Hutchinson - Cuba People Two - Photospace Gallery April-May 2017

1/5/2017

0 Comments

 
Mary Hutchinson - [Cuba St] October 6th, 2016. Archival pigment print from her series 'Cuba People Two', street photography, decisive moment, Photospace Gallery Wellington New Zealand, black and white photography in New Zealand
Mary Hutchinson - [Cuba St] October 6th, 2016. Archival pigment print from her series 'Cuba People Two'
You may have seen these photos exhibited at Matchbox on Cuba St during this year's CubaDupa festival. Mary has made it her practice to exhibit her street photography in the community area where it was made, (a pop-up in Newtown during the Newtown Festival, Thistle Hall during the previous CubaDupa) which is a great idea. However, we've also been showing selections from these exhibitions here at Photospace Gallery so that they can be seen by a different set of viewers, and for a longer period of exhibition.
I have made a selection of 12 of the more abstract photographs for viewing here. The archival pigment prints are of a limited edition of 6 and are available for $380 each as loose (unframed) prints.
Mary Hutchinson's photographs are also available in her four books, to date:
  • Three Cities (2015)
  • Newtown Forever (2016)
  • Cuba People (2016)
  • Cuba People Two (2017)
Copies of Mary's books are available at Photospace Gallery.

Picture
Cuba People Two cover

...all of which adds up somehow to a kind of beauty - the kind of local beauty you feel when you say, well, this thing and no other, this place and nowhere else...
Adam Gopnik in the foreword to Here and There, Photographs by Helen Levitt. Powerhouse Books 2003.
Mary Hutchinson - [Cuba St] July 7th, 2016, Photospace Gallery Wellington, Cuba St photography community
Mary Hutchinson - [Cuba St] July 7th, 2016.
Mary Hutchinson - [Cuba St] November 16th, 2016, 2016 Wellington earthquake aftermath, Photospace Gallery Wellington, Cuba St photography community, street photography black and white, Cuba St Wellington New Zealand
Mary Hutchinson - [Cuba St] November 16th, 2016.
0 Comments

    Author

    Photography Matters II
    by James Gilberd, owner of Photospace Gallery

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    October 2021
    August 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    February 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Friday Photo
    General
    Historic
    Puff Pieces
    Reviews

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Exhibitions
  • Artists
  • About
  • Links
  • Photo books
  • Blog
  • A Month of Sundays - Responses to the Covid-19 Lockdown