One of the great free things to do in Christchurch is to head along to the Christchurch Art Gallery on Wednesdays at 6 pm, when curators, artists, academics and others examine the ideas behind the exhibitions, enhancing and expanding the experience of viewing them.
When Ken Hall, the exhibition curator for The Vault: Neil Pardington, looked at this exhibition in relation to earlier bodies of work I was swept away with enthusiasm for finding out more about the artists he mentioned. Christchurch City Libraries has some information on most of them; some is held at the Christchurch Art Gallery library, which can be contacted if you would like to make an appointment to see these items.
So for those who love a list here’s one to work through, of some very interesting artists who have concerned themselves with similar “conceptual or thematic terrain” as Pardington in The Vault.
- Mark Dion
- Damian Hirst
- Richard Killeen
- Giorgio Morandi
- Rosalie Gascoigne
- Peter Peryer
- Gordon Walters (there’s a lovely work by Walters in the Brought to Light: A New View of the Collection show at the gallery)
- Andreas Gursky
- Thomas Struth
- Candida Hofer
- Bernd and Hilla Becher
- Philip Glass
- Joseph Cornell
- Kurt Schwitters
- Dada and Surrealism
And can I add a heartfelt recommendation to get along to one of the Wednesday night events.