Denying the Transition - from Space to Place
Liz Sharek, Elliot Collins & Helen Finlayson >

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Roy: I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the darkness at Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.

Each day, hundreds of students and staff enter the University of Auckland's
General Library building on Alfred Street. Walking over several metres of
hard grey flooring before mounting the stairs, their motion triggers the
automatic glass doors into a second foyer, where they push through the
security gates into the Lending area of the 8-floor Library. Guest-curated
by Catherine David (current Masters of Museum and Cultural Heritage
student), Denying the Transition - from Space to Place features the work of
Elliot Collins, Liz Sharek and Helen Finlayson; addressing the notion of
transition, and exploring the potential to redefine the nature of a
particular transitional space.

Auckland-based artist Elliot Collins' The Guards stand watching but not
threatening. More observers than guards, the objects' painted surfaces evoke gatekeepers, those figures whose presence marks a physical, territorial passage. An apparent non-order in this work describes Elliot's wider practice as altering and re-working visual languages. Elliot's focus on
wordplay, and his use of amassed objects as installation, creates a 'visual
poetry' for viewers to decipher.

On the surface of a table, Liz Sharek's objects display an understanding of
transition as anticipation - objects act as reserves, currently excess but
on stand-by for engagement. Halting for a brief moment on their separate and indefinite journeys, the objects together create a very temporary resonance.

Situated in both the Library foyer and online (a web cam capturing the
continual change in the installation streams live at window.auckland.ac.nz),
Sharek's work waits in areas of shift, where viewers step rapidly through a
series of boundaries and territories. Originally from England, Liz currently
works in Auckland. She holds qualifications in botany and physiotherapy, as
well as art and design.

When process through is halted, definition of the passage changes.
As, when definition of the passage changes, process is halted.

 

Helen Finlayson's Hand to Hand describes the seemingly simple gesture of giving and taking; but the work's austerity of form belies the more complex or confrontational aspects of such an act. Questions of offering and retreat, progress and withdrawal, are alluded to by each execution of a mundane or domestic action. Helen lives and works in Auckland.

That's no doorstep
It's a pillar on it's side
Yes.
That's what it is.
Jejuri, Arun Kolatkar