A temporary vision of art: Auckland Art Gallery – one year new

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For its reopening in September 2011, the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki made a bold decision to commission three temporary and three permanent artworks to complement the gallery’s vision statement and define its role as a public service. Perhaps even more than the opening exhibitions drawn from the collection, the temporary acquisitions – for six months, a year and three years respectively – showcased the expansive new spaces of the building’s redevelopment  as a contemporary, world-class art venue. Equally important were the permanent commissions by three Māori artists, which honour the gallery’s binding relationship with its local community. 

The eye-catching temporary works contributed to the record numbers of new visitors to the gallery during its first year, playing a key role in the gallery’s strategy of managing viewer expectations through varied levels of exposure to very differentartworks, some easier to relate to than others.  As reflections of ever-changing culture and the gallery’s commitment to a contemporary programme, these commissions also showcased the capacity of the expanded exhibition spaces to attract larger spatial works by international contemporary artists.

The most popular, Jeong-Hwa Choi’s Flower Chandelier (Figure 2.), was due to take its leave this September but has had a reprieve by public demand, as its exuberant, kitsch blossoms fast became an iconic image synonymous with the gallery’s architectural flair. Visible from outside the glass-walled entrance atrium, the vibrant colours and jerky movements of its inflatable fabric petals ‘breathing’ in and out successfully lured passers-by inside to admire and appreciatethis new gallery space. Typical of Choi’s inflatable ‘soft sculpture’ works, Flower Chandelier embraced internationalism, while its super-sized artificepoked fun at Western consumerism. Serendipitously the plastic flowers, reminiscent of plastic leis (garlands) used on celebratory occasions in Polynesian and Asian communities, also evoked Auckland’s pan-Pacific culture.

 On the other side of the gallery, visitors were invited to take ‘a close-up view of art and see things from a different perspective,’ with the second commission, Jeppe Hein’s Long Modified Bench Auckland (Figure 3). The white aluminium slats of the bench rise and fall in one continuous curling length along the sculpture terrace and tantalisingly disappear into the gallery below. Hein’s decade-long experimentation merges urban design and sculpture into playground-like forms, designed to entice childrenand adults alike to explore and interact with his work and with each other. This more intimate experience of art affirms the shared nature of public space in a three-year installation intended to foster familiarity and a sense of ownership.

Marking a different aspect of the gallery’s vision is a terrace devoted to six-month installations aimed at building relationships with its local art community. The first commission, I'm just like a pile of leaves by New Zealander Kate Newby (Figure 4), brought a cutting-edge flavour to the gallery’s vision.  Inspired by poet Frank O’Hara’s take on daily life as art, Newby directed visitors’ attention to their surroundings through various sensory elements offering meditations on the urban environment. A red concrete slab created the idea of an outdoor room on the terrace, with embedded found objects, yellow ropes tied to over-hanging trees in the adjoining park,and recorded cicada song, to challenge conventional expectations of artworks.

Despite significant documentation, visitors negotiated the space with some confusion, unaware that unease was an intended part of the experience. Arguably the most conceptual of the three temporary works the shorter exposure created anticipation of further commissions, and served, intentionally or not, to alleviate the work’s rather inaccessible nature.

While these temporary commissions express differing messages about the gallery’s vision of art, they may also disguise a more pragmatic ‘try-before-you-buy’ approach that avoids the higher costs of purchase, storage and maintenance.  By contrast, the other three opening commissions represent an enduring commitment, with permanent works by Māori artists integrated into the architecture. Arnold and Anthony Wilson’s carved birds He Awa Te Wa – Moments in Time form impost blocks for the foyer’s kauri columns; Fred Graham’s Te Waka Toi o Tamaki carves the form of an ancient treasure box into an outside wall; and the traditional designs of Lonnie Hutchinson’s fretwork panels Honoa Ki Te Hono Tawhiti decorate the internal gallery doorways. Each work honours Māori as tangata whenua, first people of the land, whose ancestors presented the gallery’s site to Auckland city. As part of the fabric of the gallery, they may have less independent visual impact, but their permanence speaks of lasting cultural values.

Aiming to promote identity and vision, the opening commissions helped the Auckland Art Gallery to define a new role with a diversity of artworks that broadened the gallery’s appeal, and forged links to both local and international art audiences.