Fiona Pardington, Carlo Van de Roer & David Boyce
Wunderkammer (A cabinet of curiosities)

3 – 24 December 2010


{Suite} Fine Art Gallery
69 Owen Street, Wellington 6021, New Zealand
www.suite.co.nz info@suite.co.nz Tel: +64 4 976 7663
Tuesday – Friday 1030-1730 & Saturday 1030-1600




Wunderkammer brings together works that represent a contemporary take on the Renaissance notion of a cabinet of curiosities; that displayed altogether objects from the worlds of art and antiquities, natural history, geology, archaeology as well as religious and historical relics can create a microcosm of the world. Hence, the works selected here evoke our cultural memory through mementos and curiosities, and present time as a non-linear concept. Dealing with the notion of time and memory inherent to photography, the works question photography as a tool for understanding and/or comprehending the world.

Fiona Pardington is arguably New Zealand's premier contemporary photographer. Her latest work was made while in Paris completing Ahua: A Beautiful Hesitation (part one of which was shown at the Sydney Biennale 2010). Ahua looks at the ways in which first casting and then photography have been used by Europeans as tools for understanding the world and cataloguing the exotic 'other'. She was interested in casting "because it's like the pre-photographic practice of photography", drawing a parallel between both practices in their ability to multiply and confound "what is the original image or object and what is a copy".

Fiona graduated from the University of Auckland with an MFA (First Class Honours) in photography. She has participated in many exhibitions at major institutions, including Christchurch Art Gallery (2009) and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (2006). Born in Devonport, New Zealand and of Kai Tahu, Kati Mamoe and Scottish descent, Fiona now lives and works in Waiheke Island, New Zealand.

Carlo Van de Roer recently won the jury distinction award in the Paris Photo 2010 BMW Prize, and this is the first ever exhibition of works from his Blinded by the Light series. Each image is a photograph of a museum display and captures the reflection of the camera flash in the glass barrier. The image created conveys an illusion that the beings within the display are aware of, or interacting with, the otherworldly light that has seemingly become part of the scene.

Carlo holds a BFA from Victoria University, and has been recognised with the ADC Young Guns Award, APA Silver to Pixels Award for Fine Art, PDN Pix Award, and Photo Lucida Top 50 Photographers. He was recently invited to exhibit at the prestigious 2010 Festival d'Hyères in France. Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Carlo now lives and works in New York.

David Boyce's latest works focus on disconsolation and look at cultural memory and the changes in the way that we view things. His series of small, intimate and dream-like images explore memories and also ask questions about the meaning and fallibility of memory and the cultural impositions on our memories; "expected memories". Boyce's work has been exhibited in New Zealand, China and the US and he was a finalist of the Waikato Art Award 2009. Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, David now lives and works in Hong Kong.