2012 Graduate Exhibition Curated by Briar Holt
When I Grow Up responds to the construction of various aspects of domestic life, both positively and negatively, through the works of artists Antonia Wood, Nyree McInally and Phoebe Lysbeth Kay Mackenzie.
When I Grow Up explores a strange balance of utopian and dystopian elements of art making, with a combination of traditionally domestic art forms and new media installations. The exhibition magnifies aspects of vulnerability and protection within domestic life – the safety and security that most aspire to clashing with the need to grow and gain independence in a potentially threatening society.
The exhibition is not strictly feminist in nature. However, with an all-female group of artists and curator the nature of the works in the exhibition lend to a feminist interpretation.
The three artists contributing to When I Grow Up are all 2011 graduates from the Dunedin School of Art, and curator Briar Holt has recently graduated with a degree in Art History from the University of Otago. For all involved, this exhibition was in a sense a rite of passage, a way of ‘growing up’ by working outside of the boundaries of an educational institution and testing those ideas and practices developed while studying. The exhibition is an opportunity for these recent graduates to showcase their abilities in a professional gallery setting .
