Two new exhibitions open at Adam Art Gallery

A model under construction on a workbench

Drawing Is/Not Building, presents the work of Simon Twose, Sarah Treadwell and Roland Snook—three architects who have a theoretical interest in drawing and respectively teach at Victoria University of Wellington, the University of Auckland and RMIT in Melbourne.

“Each approaches drawing not merely as a preliminary stage in a design process, but as a conceptual tool for determining the way matter is formed, shaped, constructed, and potentially felt,” says Simon Twose, who has curated the project for the Gallery.

“The three architects work in strikingly different ways,” says Christina Barton, director of the Adam Art Gallery. “Twose uses concrete to model built form, Treadwell makes large-scale mixed-media drawings and prints, and Snooks experiments with robotic fabrication techniques and computational design processes.”

The other exhibition is Living Cities 2011- by Richard Frater, a Berlin-based New Zealand artist. This builds on work he created for the Adam Art Gallery’s In Camera exhibition series in 2011. For example, the silver obtained from the processing by Park Road Post Productions in Miramar of 16mm film footage Frater shot during his residency for In Camera is being made into an object that will make a fleeting appearance in the exhibition. Other objects have been carefully selected, adjusted and placed to draw out the idea that a space or situation can produce the experience of cinematic real-time. 

“Frater orchestrates a chain of discrete scenarios,” says Adam Art Gallery curator, Stephen Cleland. “His work is dispersed between three sites: the Gallery’s website where a film ‘trailer’ is presented, the Kirk Gallery which features an alteration to the space, and an offsite venue where a sound work made in collaboration with Auckland-based sound artist Richard Francis can be experienced.” 

Frater’s research has involved study of the population of kaka that move between the Karori wildlife sanctuary Zealandia and its surrounding suburbs. “His installation unearths the potentially lethal impact on natural wildlife of contemporary urban developments,” says Mr Cleland. “It puts distance between publicity images of the city and its living, politicised dimensions.”

Frater will speak about his work at 2pm on Saturday 25 April. Information about this event and the talks associated with Drawing Is/Not Building is available at www.adamartgallery.org.nz

What: Drawing Is/Not Building: Roland Snooks, Sarah Treadwell, Simon Twose
Richard Frater: Living Cities 2011- 
Where: Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University of Wellington, Gate 3, Kelburn Parade
When: 25 April–28 June 2015
Tuesday–Sunday, 11am–5pm (closed on Monday) Note: opens at 12pm on 25 April due to Anzac Day) Free entry