Opening at the Ashburton Art Gallery in April, Legacy Issues brings together contemporary photographic artists Mitchell Bright, Conor Clarke, Ella Hickford, Moana Lee, Mike O’Kane, Tim J. Veling, and Hannah Watkinson, Legacy Issues presenting the diverse ways the invited artists have pictured the local region, the selected photographs aiming to provide audiences with new perspectives and considerations of the land that we live on.

 Indeed, commenting on, and documenting the shifting nature of our response to the land continues to be central to Western art as artists continue to observe, critique and position notions of being in pursuit of the Picturesque as a target of interest central to historical methods of representation, that is found wanting, confronted with alternative perspectives and relationships about how we review and reconsider the land. 

The artists approach the process of working with lens-based media in unique ways – through collaboration, revisiting sites, and reimagining the scenes they capture as physical objects and visual displays.   This exhibition is a collaboration between Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum, and In Situ Photo Project, a post-earthquake response to elevating lens-based practice in Ōtautahi Christchurch.

DETAILS: Ashburton Art Gallery and Museum, Legacy Issues: Lens-based investigations of Waitaha Canterbury whenua May, June, July, 27 April – 14 June 2024

IMAGE:  Ella Hickford, Giant Tōtara, Montgomery Scenic Reserve, 2023, high-performance self-adhesive vinyl onto a curved 4mm aluminum panel