Bena Jackson
CASTLE MALL
31 May – 24 June 2023
Anything can become a car park—terms and conditions sign, a swampy puddle, barely a fence. Even now, the gravel lots litter the city. Time will tell which are permanent and which are placeholders.
I walk the same route each day, seeing the supermarket trolleys make their way up the street with the free sofa and a broken bottle. Last week I noticed someone clearing out the carport that had become a dumping ground for street debris. The shattered flatscreen was swept away, the recovered space filled with new intent.
We still call the renovated pedestrian mall hack circle. The name stuck long after the undesirable youth element had been removed—replaced by a paved area with some seating, standard street lighting and bins for litter and recycling. A turret and a bollard.
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Bena Jackson lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, where she is finishing her Masters of Fine Art at Massey University. Bena lived in Ōtautahi Christchurch from 2006-2014. Recent exhibitions include Camera phone, at play_station (2021) and Bound in secret knots with Teresa Collins at Enjoy (2021).
Images by Ardit Hoxha