Ship Nails and Tail Feathers is group exhibition that brings together historical objects (1825 to 1950) selected by curatorial staff at the Canterbury Museum and the Christchurch Art Gallery, Ship Nails and Tail Feathers is an unexpected collaboration that raises the question:  Why has this taken so long to happen? 

For the Museum’s and the Gallery’s regular audiences, (and for those yet to encounter this gem of an exhibition), Ship Nails and Tail Feathers is an experience as much about reconsidering familiar objects anew and others as unanticipated and surprising encounters.

Ship Nails and Tail Feathers: Historic Treasures from the Collections of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū and Canterbury Museum, 10 June – 22 October

IMAGE: Auguste Delâtre, after Charles Meryon, untitled (canoe prow), pencil on paper.  Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, gift of the Collins family, 2021