This is Cathy Tuato'o Ross' tenth exhibition at Photospace Gallery since 2001. As you can tell, 'Stand Still' is not an exhibition of photography but it refers to the medium (see Cathy's notes below). Her previous exhibition at Photospace was 'Objects and Reasons' which featured digital photographic prints painted on - a mixed media exhibition. Since around then, Cathy has been a finalist in six out ten Parkin Drawing Prize finalist exhibitions in Wellington, including the 2022 exhibition (opening 1st August). She has entered works in a variety of mediums, including mixed media.

For these reasons, we're calling this a joint exhibition between Photospace Gallery and Gilberd Marriott Gallery (a parallel project we've been running in the same gallery rooms since 2008, allowing us to show artworks in mediums other than photography - to mix it up a bit and attract a wider range of viewers and artists to the gallery.

Artist's notes on 'Stand Still'

"The drawings in this body of work are largely based on formats borrowed from photographic studio set-ups of the early twentieth century. The photographic studio set-ups were largely based on formats inherited from paintings of previous eras. The technology has changed far more than the composition or even the intent. Despite the technical challenges of daguerreotypy, images were made of cats and dogs, for example. Cat and dog photos are still some of the most popular images in the digital era. Men are represented in power poses. Young woman are positioned to display their values and virtues, standing still or sitting in an attitude of repose. Politely. The conventions belong to the image maker/photographer, who had stock approaches to representing people of different ages, classes and ethnicities. My daughters and I have looked at studio portraits made in New Zealand/Aotearoa a hundred or so years ago, and have collaborated to make drawings referencing them, learning, at the same time, how you can think one way and appear another. It has made us question how much we can actually learn from historic photographs, beyond learning about studio practice and the public appetite for affordable portraiture. How much else has really changed over time? Technology has progressed."

'Stand Still' opens on Friday 5th August, 5pm-7pm. You are most welcome to come along.
Please wear a face mask.
Also showing:
Room 3: till13 August - Mike O'Kane - 'Changing Circumstances' (moved and reinstalled in Room 3)
Room 4 (office, and bar room for the opening) till 13 August - Max Oettli - 'Burning Shithouse and other vintage photographs'

I've finally settled on a title for this exhibition of ten vintage prints selected from the gallery's stock of Swiss-New Zealand photographer Max Oettli. It has been pointed out that the shithouse, the small structure to the right of the burning shed, is not actually on fire. This privvy's fate, however, appears sealed.
Max Oettli's exhibition 'Visible Evidence - 1965-1975 continues at the Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki till 30 October. The Photospace stock exhibition continues until 13th August, after which I shall relocate it in the gallery's new stockroom!
This is Max's second exhibition at Photospace Gallery, following 'Men' in 2019. Artist info.

Exhibition catalogue info below, with the original title (after 'Less-visible Evidence' was tried).

'Changing Circumstances' is Mike O’Kane’s third exhibition at Photospace Gallery, and the title references how we can be rearranged by circumstances sometimes beyond our knowing.

Since O’Kane’s 2012 Photospace exhibition, his style and content have evolved- most scenes in this exhibition also now include elements of his paintings which often are the genesis of a work. He has combined these with photographic techniques and Photoshop computer manipulation to create almost surreal sculptural scenes. O’Kane has come to celebrate the many serendipitous additions and erasures that can occur during this process.

The gods of war seem never sated, so O’Kane uses plastic models which depict war to suggest another narrative; no longer are they simple ciphers of combat, and in these seven images none of the figurines (bar one) brandish weapons. O’Kane has assembled and painted all the plastic figurines shown in these works. Those used in Dardanelles Two Step were particular poignant for him, as the figurines come from a set made in Kiev, Ukraine.
 
O’Kane has been exhibiting for many years. His works are held in several regional galleries, and in private collections in New Zealand and Australia.

Mike O'Kane 2012 Photospace Gallery exhibition and artist info

Mike O'Kane 'Just Playing' at Photospace Gallery, 2017

Note: 'Changing Circumstances' is initially installed as a cluster hang in the main gallery room.
The exhibition will be closed for a few days prior to 5th August, when it will make room for Cathy Tuato'o Ross's exhibition 'Stand Still', and will reappear in gallery room 3 in a different configuration, from 5th to 13th August. I'm interested to see how this will change the way the works are viewed.