Auratica Fantastica
Greta Anderson, Anonymous Collective, Nick Austin, Melanie Bell, Marissa Bradley, Mark Braunias, Jonathan Brown, Mary-Louise Browne, Xin Cheng, Museum of True History, Ruth Cleland, James Cousins, Deborah Crowe, Paul Cullen, Simon Cuming, Judy Darragh, Matt Dowman, Kirsten Dryburgh, Simon Esling, F4 - Marcus Williams and Susan Jowsey, Gina Ferguson, Kristy Gorman, Nuala Gregory, Frances Hansen, Paul Hartigan, Derek Henderson, Anya Henis, Jane Henzell, Linda Holloway, Julian Hooper, Glen Hutchins, Lonnie Hutchinson, Adrian Jackman, Megan Jenkinson, Ian Jervis, Sean Kerr, Tessa Laird, Steve Lovett, Lisa McKendrick, Paulus McKinnon, Emma McLellan, Gary McMillan, Holly Mackinven, Peter Madden, Kim Meek, Sam Mitchell, Alex Monteith, Ani O'Neill, Seung Yul Oh, Richard Orjis, Jessica Pearless, Ellen Portch, Kelly Pretty, John Pusateri, Ahilapalapa Rands, Melanie Rands, Christina Read, Bill Riley, Haruhiko Sameshima, Marie Shannon, Rachel Shearer, Tiffany Singh, Emma Smith, Peter Gibson Smith, Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Sriwhana Spong, Nick Spratt, Louise Stevenson, Harriet Stockman, Ben Tankard, Nooroa Tapuni, Mandy Thomsett-Taylor, Tim Thatcher, Ruth Thomas-Edmond, Kathryn Tsui, Jacquie Ure, Rachel Walters, Clinton Watkins, Denys Watkins, Tracey Williams, Lauren Winstone, and Sue-Li Tasker Yeo >

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Auratica Fantastica revisits the Surrealist fascination with connecting 'primitive' and modern art, and the resulting culturally eclectic groupings of objects found in their collections. In particular the show takes inspiration from André Breton's personal collection of curiosities, which included thousands of drawings, photographs, paintings, books, sculptures, artifacts, crystals, and other found objects; a portion of which is now on permanent display at the Centre Georges Pompidou. As in Breton's collection, the objects in Auratica Fantastica come from a wide variety of sources, and are selected for their perceived auratic qualities rather than for reasons dictated by classical or formal methodology.

The Surrealist belief in the latent magical properties of objects, and accordingly the object's ability to magically transmit its qualities or energy to its surroundings and viewers, has clear parallels with the phenomenological theories of art of their period, which we were to inherit to varying degrees - the art object's potential, its effect on the viewer, and importantly, the relationships created by collections. Auratica Fantastica explores how this legacy might be appropriated and subverted in a contemporary New Zealand context.