20 May – 1 July 2006
Curators: Christian Rattemeyer
Brian Butler
ARTSPACE
Auckland, New Zealand
Artists
Dan Arps, Kylie Duncan with Keely O’Shannessy and Gerald Phillips, Simon Esling, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Jennie C. Jones, Jennifer Nocon, Blake Rayne, Sriwhana Spong, Lisa Tan, Ellen Birrell, Charles LaBelle, Marie Lorenz, Daniel Malone, Dane Mitchell, Mark Orange, Yuk King Tan, Ri Williamson, Karla Wozniak
ARTSPACE presents Local Transit, an exhibition of two parts jointly organised by Artists Space, New York and ARTSPACE, Auckland. Local Transit alludes to the question of translations and readings/misreadings. What does it mean to be in New York compared to Auckland or Los Angeles? Does being in a perceived geographical periphery such as Auckland presuppose “misreadings” of dominant trends? And does New York’s cultural status decide the conversation and presume only “readings”?
Co-curated by Artists Space Curator Christian Rattemeyer and ARTSPACE Director Brian Butler, Local Transit originates from the recognition of the two institutions’ similar history, size and role in their respective communities. Through an exchange of artists the project investigates the role of familiarity and difference in the reading of contemporary art. The exhibition occurs concurrently in Auckland and New York. In each location a different group of artists has been selected: four Aucklanders, four New Yorkers and one Angelino. All the artists hail from port cities. Traditionally, port cities are free cities with a lack of control in what passes through and enters the port. They are cities open to communication, language and translation where ideas flow and meanings are difficult to fix.