The Expatriates: Frances Hodgkins and Barrie Bates & Quiet: Recent Photographs by Christine Webster at Adam Art Gallery, Victoria University, Wellington 23 October 2004 - 5 February 2005

The Adam Art Gallery is pleased to present two exciting new exhibitions opening this Friday 22 October. The exhibitions, 'The Expatriates: Frances Hodgkins and Barrie Bates' and 'Quiet: Recent Photographs by Christine Webster', feature new works by prominent New Zealand photographer Christine Webster, as well as previously unseen works by Barrie Bates (Billy Apple) and Frances Hodgkins.

'The Expatriates: Frances Hodgkins and Barrie Bates' brings together two of New Zealand's most prominent twentieth century artists for the first time in one exhibition.

Curated by Christina Barton, Senior Lecturer in Art History at Victoria University of Wellington, the exhibition focuses on Frances Hodgkins and Barrie Bates (now better known as Billy Apple) and highlights their parallel experiences as expatriate artists in the UK and how this informed their practice.

'The Expatriates' is a remarkable selection of works and includes paintings by Bates and Hodgkins that have never before been exhibited in New Zealand. The exhibition focuses on the work made by Hodgkins and Bates when they were living in the UK, from the time they left New Zealand until they made a conscious decision to remain in the Northern Hemisphere. Curator, Tina Barton has included a selection of personal ephemera such as photographs, journals and letters which provide a revealing insight into the lives of these artists and show the extent to which their personal experiences influenced their artwork.

A full colour catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

Quiet: Recent Photographs by Christine Webster

Showing concurrently at the Adam Art Gallery is 'Quiet: Recent Photographs by Christine Webster'. Born and trained in New Zealand, Christine Webster came to national and international prominence in the mid-80s with her striking, and often controversial, photographic series entitled 'Black Carnival' that attracted significant public and media attention. Since then, Webster who is now based in the UK, has participated in numerous exhibitions in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Cologne and Paris.

In this series of seven large C-type prints entitled 'Quiet', Webster focuses on the male body as a signifier of identity and as a site of desire. Inspired by a boxing match and the 'theatre of violence' she experienced while watching the match, the artist strips away the boxers' mask of masculinity to expose his naked vulnerability and innate 'beauty'.

These traits, often considered 'feminine', are further emphasized by an image that sits alongside the 'male image', of soft fabrics and embroidered patterns that are often associated with childhood, domesticity and intimacy. In these works Webster explores issues relating to the construction of gender, and what she describes as the 'cliche of the brute as a fantasy construct'.

Performance is also central to these works, with the subject often unwittingly assuming a role or a 'pose' that is played out before the camera, thus masking her/his true identity. Webster states, 'posing is a process whereby each time a new body or self is created', and it is this 'transformative act' that captures the artist's interest.

Both 'The Expatriates: Frances Hodgkins and Barrie Bates' and 'Quiet: Recent Photographs by Christine Webster', will be on show at the Adam Art Gallery until 5 February 2005 and will be accompanied by a full range of Public Programmes. The Adam Art Gallery will be closed for Christmas/New Year from 13 December 2004 - 17 January 2005.

For more information about our Public Programmes please contact: Emily Cormack, Exhibitions and Public Programmes Officer, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington. T: 04 4635229/ E: emily.cormack@vuw.ac.nz

For more information on exhibitions at the Adam Art Gallery please check our website www.vuw.ac.nz