A Tragic Delusion Deanna Dowling, Tomas Richards, Cobi Taylor, Robyn Jordaan
Opening Preview: Tuesday 4 August, 5.30pm
Click here to download exhibition text
Click here to see Vimeo documentation of Robyn Jordaan's 'I never really played' 2015 Part 1 and Part 2
Click here to listen to an excerpt of Kim Pieters' 'The underground is dead, long live the underground' on SoundCloud
Observing the characteristics of a specific moment in time, ‘A Tragic Delusion’ brings together four emergent practitioners working in sculpture, installation and performance to explore artist-run exhibition ideals that existed outside of the gallery system in the 70s, 80s and 90s.
Using an empty loft space in Dunedin’s designated ‘warehouse precinct’, an area that has hosted countless artistic activities in its prolonged derelict state, the exhibition symbolically juxtaposes past experiments with present ideals—de-centralising the Blue Oyster and offering the space up to be absorbed into a broader less conventional exhibition across several sites.
While the premise of ‘A Tragic Delusion’ is positioned in the past the exhibition is situational; set up to test the nature of emerging sculptural practice in New Zealand today. This can be seen in the way Deanna Dowling’s practice is framed by her commitment to sculpture, whereas Cobi Taylor's works can be read as installations that explore and reject conventional painting narratives, scale and histories. While Tomas Richards quietly and physically unearths material relationships between human-shaped objects and the inanimate, Robyn Jordaan’s energetic practice blasts open common conceptions about sculpture and performance using ad hoc processes, presence and humour.
An active public programme of live performance, archival film and open conversation responds to the premise of the exhibition with a little more experience on the subject of labour, the underground, characteristics and mishaps in past and current Dunedin practice. See programme timetable below.
Exhibition Locations
Above Dutybound (57 Crawford St), Blue Oyster and selected sites in between.
Click here for recommended viewing route on Google Maps
Accompanying Public Programme
Click here to download poster with schedule or collect one from the Blue Oyster
Labour Day
A performance by Adrian Hall
Saturday 8 August, 9am – 5pm
Blue Oyster and Dutybound
The underground is dead, long live the underground
Screening of Dereliction (1996) and conversation with Kim Pieters
Saturday 15 August, 1pm – 2pm
Blue Oyster
Characteristics of Change
Screening of The Characteristics of C-Minor (2014) and conversation with Nick Knox
Saturday 22 August, 1pm-2pm
Blue Oyster
Monumental Mishaps
A conversation with Stuart Griffiths
Saturday 29 August, 1pm – 2pm
Blue Oyster
