A professional attachment

First up, the three exhibitions (et al, van Hout and Pick) now on at the Christchurch Art Gallery are outstanding. Add to that a set of galleries that are easily the best exhibition spaces in the country and it is well worth a visit. Not often do you see such large-scale backing of contemporary NZ art. One detail said as much about the Christchurch Art Gallery as the shows themselves. No one would say that installing an et al. production is anything less than demanding, with technical requirements, sound, paint-outs and, usually, challenges to conventional practice. et al.'s that's obvious! that's right! that's true! was definitely in that mode, but here the technical team appeared to have performed faultlessly. Often a sticking point with installations is the willingness by managment to allow the work to affect the structure of the building. With that's obvious! that's right! that's true! not only had ceiling panels been removed to reveal the air conditioning ducts and electrics, but very tall metal stands had been dynabolted directly to the floor. Remember that some institutions will not even allow sculpture to stand directly on their highly polished floorsl let alone drive steel dynabolts into them. Whenever you see dynabolts in stone you know you are looking at total commitment.