Window treatment of local art

Colony by Paul Hartigan features 130m of neon tubing and is resplendent on the exterior of the university’s engineering building. Picture / Godfrey Boehmke

Just across Albert Park from the Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland University's campus has become a major contributor to one of Auckland's most culturally vibrant precincts.

At one end of the campus is the Gus Fisher Gallery, operating since 2001 and beautifully set in an historic former broadcasting facility. Bordering Albert Park is the well-established student facility, the George Fraser Gallery, and at the hub of it all is the new student amenities facility, which last week won an award at the 2005 New Zealand Institute of Architects Resene Awards. It is brimming with work from the university's art collection, including major new sculptures by Neil Dawson, Chiara Corbelletto and, just over the road, Paul Hartigan.

Most interesting of all is the Window Project, with its display in the general library's entrance and online. Focusing on experimental and interdisciplinary art with a digital edge, it was launched last March and is curated by Michelle Menzies, Luke Duncalfe and Stephen Cleland, all Elam students when the project was conceived four years ago. "One of the things we are interested in doing is facilitating interdisciplinary projects between artists and other sorts of disciplines. The university seems like a logical hub for that sort of activity," says Menzies.

Presently showing in Window's physical and virtual space is Billy Apple's Severe Tropical Storm 9301 Irma, curated by English professor and long-time collaborator, Wystan Curnow.

Although Severe Tropical Storm has been exhibited previously and is scheduled for an expanded appearance at Te Tuhi, Apple has adapted it to suit Window. He has also made sure the facilities are used to their full potential, resulting in new elements to his installation, which responds directly to its new location.

This is typical of Apple's career, which has constantly questioned the conditions of art-making and the politics of display, critiquing and modifying many galleries over the years. Window, however, met up to his exacting standards: "It's one of the nicest rooms I've done," says Apple, whose only interventions were to incorporate the space's side-panels into his installation and turn a previously unused exterior window into a billboard space.

Severe Tropical Storm is based on data collected from a sea voyage Apple took in 1993, transforming the information into charts and a musical score. Working with composer Jonathan Besser, information about the ship is translated from numerical and alphabetic data into a chromatic musical score, which plays as a daily duet at noon in accordance with the routine of the ship's daily log entries.

For this incarnation of the installation, Apple has also made use of Window's online presence to create his first internet-work; a digital animation made in collaboration with Duncalfe, Window's online curator.

Window was made possible by a grant from the Vice-Chancellor's University Development Fund after a proposal to then Vice-Chancellor John Hood's Student Life Commission, which fielded proposals from students to enhance the university's cultural dynamics, says Menzies. "Hood was very arts-friendly and also someone who was quite willing to listen to ideas, which was really great," says Menzies.

Hood, who was Vice-Chancellor from 1999 until June 2004, when he left to become Vice-Chancellor at Oxford, was instrumental in establishing the Gus Fisher Gallery. He also helped expand the university's art collection by making additional funds available to commission the major new works created as part of the student amenities revamp.

Of those new works, Paul Hartigan's Colony is the most visible, resplendent on the exterior of the engineering building in glowing orange neon and visible to anyone driving down Symonds St.

Completed last year after two years' work, Hartigan compares the project to doing four consecutive dealer gallery shows.

With a complex installation incorporating 20 separate electrical circuits, glass and about 130m of neon tubing on a curved wall, Colony is one of Hartigan's biggest and most sophisticated works to date.

"I am immensely proud of Colony because it culminates, in many respects, most completely everything I've been trying to do for the last 20 odd years of neon."

Commissioned by a committee that included Professor, and then Head of Elam, Michael Dunn and Gus Fisher director Robin Stoney, this was a rare opportunity for Hartigan to create a particularly ambitious work.

"As an artist, if you get invited to do a major public work once in your life, you can count yourself pretty lucky, really. And I have been very, very lucky in that I have had several opportunities," says Hartigan, referring to major public works he also has in New Lynn, New Plymouth, Wellington and Christchurch.

"Michael Dunn said to me, 'Paul, I want you to make the best work you've ever made.' That's quite a tall order when somebody says that to you. It puts a lot of pressure on you but, in a sense, I feel like I met that objective," Hartigan says.

Apple was one of the first artists to exhibit at the George Fraser Gallery when it opened in 1987. Originally established as an extension of Artspace, it was later taken over by Elam and has become an important venue for students to experiment in and gain valuable exhibiting experience.

With major staff changes and restructuring taking place at Auckland University, the direction of both the George Fraser and Gus Fisher Galleries are now in question.

Stoney would not comment on the changes, saying they are still under discussion. "Under the support of John Hood it [Auckland University] became a very culturally vibrant campus and a strong presence in the arts," she says. "I am hopeful this will continue; that the university will continue to be a culturally rich environment."

Exhibition

* What: Severe Tropical Storm 9301 Irma, by Billy Apple

* Where and when: Window, General Library Building, 5 Alfred St, University of Auckland, to April 30

* On the web: www.window.auckland.ac.nz