Space M
3 Sept – 19 Sept 2020
Rules, logics and codes are carefully considered by artist Turumeke Harrington. Harrington frames this exhibition, Te Āwhiowhio Suck it up!, as a type of pause between a tight turnaround of five, separate solo exhibitions. The show follows on from overlapping exhibitions at Objectspace and the RM booth for May Fair Art Fair, and precedes upcoming shows at Corban Estate Arts Centre and Toi Poneke Gallery. Te Āwhiowhio Suck it up! is the mid-way point, the middle of the wall so to speak, as good a place as any to stop and reconsider what makes a good hang.
This exhibition revisits components—LED light bulbs, cords, steel, rope—from Harrington’s last two exhibitions. These materials are more commonly associated with the functional. Here, however, conventional supports are intentionally rendered purposeless. Light bulbs shine in a room already filled with natural light. Rope cords are threaded through brackets, neither of which hold or suspend anything. Their functionality short-circuited, it is the otherwise overlooked formal decisions that come to the fore. When should a bracket be hot pink, and when should it be yellow? What is the best colour for cords and ropes? When should a lightbulb be hung upright and when should it be hung facing down?
