'Meet me on the other side'...

PRESENTED WITH

PART OF THE

CURRENT

JULIA MORISON: MEET ME ON THE OTHER SIDE

10 FEB 2012 – 25 MAR 2012

Julia Morison's evocative post-quake sculptures and 'liqueurfaction' paintings return to Christchurch for a special showing in a gallery space overlooking the inner-city 'red zone'.

Something, for example

Laconic thing

On Sunday HB and I met in the wasteland that is the back of Madras Street - 

to catch up and venture into the Ng Gallery. 'Venture' in more ways than one, because the gallery is upstairs in the old Bain's building, on the very edge of 

the inner-city cordon and therefore of some quake-concern. 'Venture' also 

because, as the images above suggest, it was not likely to be an easy viewing experience. 

In fact, we both loved the exhibition and became increasingly animated as we 

circled the amazing, cavernous gallery space - stark white painted brick walls, 

black wooden rafters, black earthquake bracing and natural wood floor. At the 

far end of the gallery room, as much a part of the experience as the works within, 

 a view across what was once the bustling heart of Christchurch's Madras, 

Manchester and High Streets' retail area. 

Julia Morison's works unsettle, challenge, seduce, subvert. They are (in some 

cases) ugly and elegant at the same time. Justin Paton calls them "fantastically, wonderfully ugly". They make the familiar (ironing board, bird cage, plastic 

shopping bags...) strange and uneasy. As HB eloquently put it, we view such 

objects through a 'Janet Frame' filter. 

Liquefaction stars. But is transmuted. A liqueuer collection, lost to silt, is reborn 

in ten paintings with such names as...

Monochrome in liqueurfaction: silt and amaretto

Monochrome in liqueurfaction: silt and black sambuca

Monochrome in liqueurfaction: silt and cherry brandy...

Melted plastic bags exude, threaten to escape the containers which cannot 

contain forever. The medical/experimental implications of the two works 

illustrated above unsettled me, made me slightly queasy. But together, HB and 

I went to 'the other side' and delighted in the shared journey. The two lovely 

gallery guides enhanced our discussions and asked us to spread the word - encourage Christchurch people to seek out this gallery in the wasteland space 

and engage with...whatever may be found there.

And finally, from Leonard Cohen, via Glenn O'Brien by way of Justin Paton...

there's a crack in everything,

that's how the light gets in.