Nine Lives: The Chartwell Exhibition 2003

Nine Lives installed in Auckland Art Gallery's New Gallery, 2003

Nine Lives: The Chartwell Exhibition 2003

Where

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
When

13 September 2003 - 23 November 2003

Curated by Robert Leonard, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Nine Lives featured energetic work by Et Al., Giovanni Intra, Julian Dashper, Jacqueline Fraser, Bill Hammond, Michael Parekowhai, Peter Peryer, John Reynolds and Michael Stevenson. It featured a number of works by each of the nine artists represented in and collected in depth by the Chartwell Collection.

Not your usual group show, Leonard said of the exhibition - “I would like Nine Lives to be read essentially as a show of individuals.”

The image shows a white gallery space with a concrete floor. On the left hand wall is an artwork consisting of multiple horizontal rows of small books, which are all varying heights and widths. The shelves are arranged in so that the edges of the entire installation look rounded off in an almost circular shape. The books are a mixture of black, grey and white and have indiscernible words on them. On the floor in the centre of the room is a work which consists of lots of little, miscellaneous mechanical parts in black and silver scattered haphazardly around in a circular arrangement. On the righthand wall is a large black, vertical artwork which has rectangular shapes in dark grey scattered across it, with the words 'clinic of phantasms' written in the centre.

Left: Untitled, Giovanni Intra (1995-6)

The image shows the other side of the gallery room which was shown in the previous photo. In this image, the same installation of miscellaneous mechanical pieces is visible scattered on the floor. On the far wall of the room, a series of seven visually similar photographs are just visible, all with white frames and light blue backgrounds. On the wall to the right of these is a large framed photograph of a person's foot, outstretched against a blue sky. To the right of this is a tall doorway leading into the next gallery space, and to the right of the door two smaller black framed photographs hang on the wall.

Installation View

The image shows a square mirror leaning against a wall with the words 'an excellent fetish' engraved upon in it cursive writing. A black men's suit covered in little metal studs, hanging from a wall is visible in the reflection of the mirror.

Reflection of Untitled (Studded Suit) by Giovanni Intra (1990)

The image shows a white gallery space with a polished wooden floor. On the left hand side of the room sits a large deep trailer on wheels, holding some thin rectangular cargo covered in a grey packing cloth. Light is emitting from a source obscured by the trailer. To the right of the trailer a white and black typewriter perches on top of a tall barstool. Against the right hand wall in the background of the photo two large, rectangular trestle tables are leant against the wall on their fronts, exposing the apple green back of each table to the viewer. Indiscernible writing is messily scrawled upon each table.

et al.

The image shows a white gallery space with a polished wooden floor. Two white columns are in the centre of the room, stretching from floor to ceiling. On the left hand wall hangs a large square artwork which depicts a scene inside a home. An oblong table holds stylised birds of varying sizes and lengths stacked neatly in rows, while three more hang in a clump from the ceiling. Two taxidermied huia birds, with long beaks, are perched stiffly in a large glass vitrine to the left of the table. A glowing lamp and window looking out into a dark night are also present in the work. Across the bottom, the title of the painting, 'Buller's Tablecloth' is written in capital letters. To the right of this painting, another work can just been seen in a large horizontal black frame. This work is also filled with multiple, humanoid birds with long beaks and human arms and hands. Some have wings extending out of their backs, like angels. All are looking in different directions. On the back wall of the gallery hangs a tall vertical painting which depicts a living room space. On a green couch in the living room a young woman (who has one leg and one tail, appearing to be a hybrid mermaid of some sort) lies asleep on the couch, while a tall man covered in red veins sneaks along the back of the couch towards the open window looking into a dark night, with what looks like a gun in his hand. On the far right wall of the gallery is a large horizontal work which is divided into three sections. Japanese imagery, including calm Noh theatre masks, manga-inspired figures and objects, curved dragons, bonsai trees and crowds make up each of the scenes in this artwork.

W D Hammond, left to right: Buller's Table Cloth (1994) (Auckland Art Gallery Collection), Whistler's Mothers (2000) (Chartwell Collection), Passover (1989) (Chartwell Collection), and Japan 3, 4, 5 (1992) (Auckland Art Gallery Collection).

The image shows one half of a white gallery space with a polished wooden floor. A tall white column stretches from floor to ceiling on the far left of the image. To the right of this hangs a very tall vertical artwork, which depicts a composition with exaggerated perspective filled with imagery associated with radios, including antennas, a table of audio equipment, a car racing along a street and the words 'Hi Score Icon' in digitised lettering along the top of the artwork. All of this is on a mustard yellow background. On the right hand wall hang two paintings. On the left hangs a large square artwork which depicts a scene inside a home. An oblong table holds stylised birds of varying sizes and lengths stacked neatly in rows, while three more hang in a clump from the ceiling. Two taxidermied huia birds, with long beaks, are perched stiffly in a large glass vitrine to the left of the table. A glowing lamp and window looking out into a dark night are also present in the work. Across the bottom, the title of the painting, 'Buller's Tablecloth' is written in capital letters. To the right of this painting is a work filled with multiple, humanoid birds with long beaks and human arms and hands. Some have wings extending out of their backs, like angels. All are looking in different directions.

W D Hammond, left to right: Channel Zero (1988) (Chartwell Collection), Buller's Table Cloth (1994) (Auckland Art Gallery Collection), Whistler's Mothers (2000) (Chartwell Collection).

The work depicts the corner of a white gallery room with a polished wooden floor. On the left hand wall hang three artworks. The left work is a large square painting divided into even vertical strips of black and white. Next to it is a square artwork which consists of a small yellow circle within a larger orange circle, on a light blue background. To the right of this artwork hangs a much smaller circular artwork, which shows a small orange circle inside a bigger white circle inside a bigger light blue circle. Against the right hand gallery wall a full drum kit has been set up, with the words 'The Anguses' written in capital orange letters across the front of the largest drum.

Julian Dashper, left to right: Untitled (1991) (1991), Untitled (Target) (1993), Untitled (1996), The Anguses (1992). All Chartwell Collection.

The image shows a corner of a white gallery space with a concrete floor. On the left hand wall hangs a large horizontal painting covered in messy, angular abstract white and grey lines, with multicoloured scribblings, against a red and black cloudy background. On the right hand wall hangs a very long oblong, large work consisting of tiles of blue, orange, red, purple and green with different kinds of knot diagrams painted over the top in white.

John Reynolds, Gulch (1986) (left), and The Western Dream (1993). Both Chartwell Collection.

The image shows a white gallery space with a concrete floor. On the floor is a haphazard arrangement of bright yellow, enlarged thin ladders, rakes, spades and other such tools. Against the back left hand wall lean two huge, enlarged black kitsets filled with korus, mimicking the style of Gordon Walter's paintings. On the right hand wall hang three framed photographs of vases of flowers.

Michael Parekowhai, left to right: Kiss the Baby Goodbye (1994) (Chartwell Collection), Etaples, Passchendale and Boulonge (2001) and Acts. (10: 34-38) "He went about doing good" (1993) (centre floor) (all Auckland Art Gallery Collection).

Michael Parekowhai, left to right: Roebuck Jones and the Cuniculus Kid (2001), Craig Keller (2000) and Neil Keller (2000). All Chartwell Collection.

The image shows a white gallery wall and a concrete floor. On the floor a long row of newspaper headlines lean against the gallery wall, depicting a range of headlines contemporary to the time: including 'Lange/Douglas wall of silence', 'Wall Falls', 'Collapse of Mirror City' and Biggest Artist Since Gauguin'. Above these newspapers hang two newspaper clippings framed in large white frames.

Michael Stevenson, assorted newspaper headlines (2002, floor) (Auckland Art Gallery Collection), Art old and new (2002, left) and Hotel bill (2002) (both Chartwell Collection).

The image shows a white gallery space with a concrete floor. On the back wall hang three framed artworks, each with a circular slide holder in the foreground and small, indiscernible white text printed next to them. In the centre of the room is a large Steinway grand piano.

Michael Stevenson, back wall: The Free Exchange of Ideas No. 1, 2 and 3 (1996). Centre: Slave Pianos (of the Art Cult) (1998-99). All Chartwell Collection.