Zahra Killeen-Chance will perform at Sarjeant on the Quay on Sunday, March 12. Photo / Supplied
Zahra Killeen-Chance will perform at Sarjeant on the Quay on Sunday, March 12. Photo / Supplied
The sun is set to rise on a new exhibition opening at the Sarjeant Gallery on Saturday, March 11.
Entitled The Sun Sets Beneath the Ocean, the exhibition, which runs until June 30, is a collaboration between two artists: dancer/choreographer Zahra Killeen-Chance and photographer Solomon Mortimer.
The artists, accompanied by young daughter Frieda, were Tylee Cottage residents in July–November 2021, during a Covid lockdown, a circumstance that provided both limits and perspectives. For example, the August level 4 lockdown led to the creation of their book A Room in Whanganui.
The title of the exhibition The Sun Sets Beneath the Ocean and the accompanying book were initially drawn from Killeen-Chance’s performance work, inspired by the natural environment at the North Mole.
“As a family, we would make regular visits there and roam the beach,” Killeen-Chance said.
“The beach was plentiful with driftwood, pumice and shells. We would collect items we were drawn to and bring them back to the cottage. I was so taken with the energy of the mole and these pieces that washed up on the beach that I decided to base my dance work around a piece of pumice, driftwood and shell. This morphed into an exploration between nature and culture.”
As part of their creative process, the artists said they usually began by exploring their immediate domestic environment, images of each other in and around the house, and scenes from their daily routines.
“Throughout this process, it is punctuated with moments of the unexpected where a scene or situation or an idea would unfold in front of us,” they said.
Throughout the residency, Tylee Cottage and the family life within and without its walls provided material for “an intimate photographic exploration”.
“The work is a response to our environment and our experience living there,” Mortimer said.
“As we hung out and existed as a young family, we also absorbed and took note of the environment around us and how the light would shift in the house. Moments and parts of the house would capture our imagination and we would attempt to capture them.”
Solomon Mortimer, Tracing Pumice, 2021. Photo / Courtesy of the artist
Time spent with Frieda at the beach and in the natural environment of Whanganui inspired many of his landscape images, and he also enjoyed driving and walking around with local photographer Brendan Kitto.
Killeen-Chance’s performance concerns the natural world and was developed out of an outfit she found at the Gonville Hospice Store.
“The hill behind the cottage is very steep and rises very quickly up behind the kitchen and so when you look out the back door you are presented with a very low angle view gazing skyward in a way that splits the landscape in almost equal parts, ground and sky. We ended up using this view as the setting for the performance studies for Zahra’s work, which are videos and photographs that record and accompany the performance as a more permanent reminder or manifestation of the work that can be experienced outside the unique presentation of her performance.”
Looking back on their work they noted some repeating themes, objects and motifs, such as the kinesthetic possibilities of the cottage, “how it moves and how we move within it”.
“As we lived in the cottage, certain elements would catch our eye or a new angle or way of seeing parts of the house would emerge. For instance, lying on the stairs and looking upwards with Frieda allowed a new view of the banister and ceiling which inspired us to take a few photographs. Noticing the tight flow of doors between bathroom and kitchen drew our attention to their presence and how they could be photographed.”
Opening weekend events at Sarjeant on the Quay
Sunday, March 12
11am–11.30am: Performance of Zahra Killeen-Chance in the space dedicated to the exhibition The Sun Sets Beneath the Ocean, the post-Tylee exhibition by photographer Solomon Mortimer and choreographic artist Zahra Killeen-Chance.
11.45am–12.45pm: Artist Talk with Zahra Killeen-Chance & Solomon Mortimer. The artists will discuss their post-Tylee exhibition The Sun Sets Beneath the Ocean with the Sarjeant Gallery’s curator and public programmes manager Greg Donson.
Free entry. All welcome but please book for the talk and performance at the Sarjeant or by calling 06 349 0506 or email info@sarjeant.org.nz
