SCAPE 2002 Programme

SCAPE exhibitions included major solo exhibits by British artists, a group exhibition of contemporary Maori art, a video projection by an American artist and site-specific artworks by some of New Zealand's foremost contemporary artists. Site-specific works included sculpture, installation and intervention. To ensure greater public access all projects were conveniently located in Christchurch's central city.

Video/SCAPE: Artists' Video in the Central City
Curator: Ewen McDonald

Screened on monitors outside the gallery context, artists' video projects have the potential to reach a much wider audience. The itinerary for SCAPE - which included a number of shop windows, the entrance and an internal space of a department store, the choir practice room in the tower of the Cathedral, a large outdoor screen and quiet areas within the City Library and a bookshop - was designed specifically with the passer-by mind. Shop fronts with their large glass windows are ready-made display cases - their construction and motivation is to captivate and draw the viewer in. While some works could have been considered sculptural or performance pieces and others documentations of ritualistic aspects of human behaviour, a common thread ran between them: when focused upon in a particular way, things that once seemed so very familiar suddenly became mysteriously strange and hauntingly poetic.

With its emphasis on site-specific work, the first Art & Industry biennial Art & Industry 2000, aimed to bring contemporary art to a wider audience by placing it in non-gallery settings including Christchurch International Airport and North Hagley Park. Most of these works disappeared after the three months of the biennial, but two have endured, at the Christchurch Convention Centre and The Crossing retail complex/bus interchange. These works, Blue and The Radii, are detailed on the following pages.

To celebrate the opening of SCAPE, a special gala dinner was organised. Held in a striking contemporary venue, the dinner was a night to remember with a menu prepared by one of world's most renowned chefs, New Zealander Peter Gordon.