Students Experience Auckland Festival of Photography
Posted on June 19, 2019
Recently a group of 50 Year 12 and 13 Photography students toured seven gallery sites around Auckland to view exhibitions which were part of the Auckland Festival of Photography.
They viewed an amazing range of work by artists ranging from New Zealand canons, internationally renowned photographic artists and exciting emerging artists. It was an opportunity for students to view works in the flesh by artists they had studied in books such as Fiona Pardington, Yvonne Todd, Marie Shannon, Peter Peryer, Derek Henderson and Richard Orjis.
One of the highlights of the trip was viewing the large scale works from Pardington’s “Taku toi kahurangi / My precious jewel” works at Alberton house. Viewing these works in a site referencing colonialism and museum culture in New Zealand created an interesting dialogue with Pardington’s works which question ownership and display of New Zealand’s cultural taonga.
The students were fortunate to be given a talk by curator Allan MacDonald, who put together a show of works at Gallery One, around a work by Joanna Piotrowska. The work was a key piece in her solo exhibition at Tate Britain this year.
They were also treated to an artist talk by Cambodian artist, Kim Hak. Hak’s project “Alive” explores the stories of personal struggles and tragedies that Cambodian families suffered under the Khmer Rouge regime. He met with 12 families who came to New Zealand as refugees and documented the few objects which had travelled with them as they moved through border camps and refugee centres. The show has travelled through Cambodia and Australia and included many of the objects alongside the photographic images.
