Split screen: Elam work on show in video exhibition

Exploring themes of the natural world, embodiment, and duration, Dialogues in Video Art: Works from the Chartwell Collection and Elam Artists brings together video works by leading artists like Sriwhana Spong and Phil Dadson with new works by Elam fine arts students.

The exhibition, which opens at the George Fraser Gallery in Auckland on 20 August, is a collaboration between the University of Auckland and the Chartwell Collection, one of the country’s most significant collections of contemporary art.

It came about after the conversion of the gallery’s backroom into a video presentation space for doctoral exams, says assistant curator Audrey Goggin, a second-year Bachelor of Fine Arts student.

“Simon Ingram, director of the Master of Fine Arts programme, had the idea to create a video art project to make the most of this newly darkened space,” she says.  

This coincided with US art historian and curator Alex Bacon being hosted by Ingram at Elam as a Visiting Scholar. Bacon was looking for a local project, and keen to create an opportunity for him and the students, Ingram made the pitch to Sue Gardiner at the Chartwell Collection for a joint exhibition.

Then once the idea got the green light, Bacon came on board as curator and relished the chance to become more involved with the local art community.

He says it’s been wonderful to see the diversity and rigour of the practices of both established and emerging artists.

“This exhibition has been a great opportunity to learn more about the local scene by engaging with its foremost art school and art collection. In particular it was nice to work with the strong subset of moving image works held within the Chartwell Collection.”

He says such works have long been an important part of the collection, but this is the first exhibition to foreground them.

“By placing them in dialogue with student work, we are able to demonstrate the continued vitality of video art in Aotearoa.”

Bacon will also lead workshops with participating Elam artists, and texts based on those conversations will be published on the Chartwell Collection’s website.

Sue Gardiner, co-director of the Chartwell Collection and chair of the Chartwell Charitable Trust, is delighted to be part of this unique collaboration.

“We view each work in the Chartwell Collection as an active participant in, and contributor to, the wider visual arts culture,” says Gardiner, "so we see this collaboration with Elam, and the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki as lending partners, as an activation for exchange, dialogue and education.”

Goggin says the focus on a dialogue between emerging artists and established practitioners is “a rare opportunity” for both undergraduate and postgraduate Elam fine arts students to exhibit alongside such internationally well-known artists as Sriwhana Spong, herself an Elam alumna.

In her role, Goggin coordinated student submissions, managed installation logistics, and helped arrange loans with registrars at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, where the 2000 contemporary artworks which make up the Chartwell Collection have been on long term loan since 1997.

"It’s been a hands-on curatorial experience,” she says. “Working with curators, artists, and AV technicians to shape the exhibition has been incredibly rewarding."

Dialogues in Video Art: Works from the Chartwell Collection and Elam Artists,  (20 August to 26 September) at the George Fraser Gallery (25 Princes Street) features 14 works by Elam students, alongside 11 works from the Chartwell Collection on loan from Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, and will be presented in two parts.

The first selection will be on view for the initial two weeks until 29 August. The gallery will then be closed for the mid-semester break and will reopen on 17 September with a second rotation for the final fortnight, closing on 26 September.

The exhibition is open Wednesdays to Fridays, from 11am to 4pm. Details about the exhibition’s opening events can be found on Instagram@elamgalleries.

More about Te Waka Tūhura Elam Galleries

More about The Chartwell Project