Photographer exposes backroom collections

An eclectic mix of items stored behind the scenes in museums and art galleries is exposed through the lens of Neil Pardington in his touring show, The Vault.

It's at Wanganui's Sarjeant Gallery until March 4.

Included are stuffed animals and birds, carvings, old-fashioned toys and the racks, crates, drawers and shelves they are stored in. Four of the photographs were taken in the storage spaces of Whanganui Regional Museum.

Some were amassed in the late 19th and early 20th century, when collecting practices were different from today.

"A lot of things may never see the light of day again in a museum," Sarjeant assistant curator Sarah McClintock said.

No stranger to underground storage, she said it could sometimes be spooky.

The photographs show the objects as stored, and unmediated by the eye of a designer or curator.

"I think that's what gives them a ghostly, almost mysterious air," Miss McClintock said. "It's very much A Night At The Museum. You wonder how they live their lives when they are not on display."

The objects are shown just as they are found in there, but they are also mediated by the eye of Pardington.

"It's almost like found art. He's found accidental compositions of works that bring life to them."

Pardington graduated in fine arts from the University of Auckland in 1984. Later in the 1980s he worked at the Sarjeant Gallery, as designer and photographer. He shared a darkroom with the inaugural Tylee Cottage artist-in-residence Laurence Aberhart, and was influenced by him.

Pardington is now a film-maker and designer, as well as this year's recipient of the Marti Friedlander Award.

The Vault is his first major solo show. The artist gives a floor talk on it in Wanganui on February 4.