Neil Pardington: The Vault

Glimpses into normally hidden spaces behind the scenes of New Zealand museums and galleries will be offered by leading contemporary photographer Neil Pardington in his exhibition Neil Pardington: The Vault which opens at Christchurch Art Gallery on 6 November 2009.

The exhibition’s 40 images reveals storage spaces that are normally closed to the public (including some at Christchurch Art Gallery), exposing storehouses of memory and places filled with mystifying treasure.

They include photographs of animals and birds in taxidermy storerooms, paintings fastened to sliding storage walls, specimens in jars, rooms of mannequins, shelves of films in tins, taonga Māori, buildings full of army vehicles, textiles, card catalogues and much more.

A graduate of the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts in 1984, Pardington (Kai Tahu, Kati Mamoe, Kati Waewae, Pākehā) has exhibited nationally and internationally, and worked as a film-maker, artist and designer. One of his films has been shown at Cannes. He has steadily built a reputation as one of New Zealand’s most highly regarded photographers, and his work is now represented in many of the country’s major collections. This is his first major solo show.