Detail of the Disney Castle from Brit Bunkley's Ghost Shelter video.
Heart rates may increase while viewing Brit Bunkley's video Ghost Shelter, which is also the title of the his installation of sculpture and video that has just opened at the Sarjeant on the Quay.
The combination of mechanical background noise and a camera that slowly circles derelict buildings and monuments creates a state of tension. It is, however, an experience the artist intends to be cathartic.
The video is a series of virtual flyovers of 3D scans of structures that have a deserted, end-of-the-world atmosphere. It is shown along with the 3D small-scale models that Bunkley has printed from the same digital files.
Bunkley travelled around Europe and America visiting sites that were "a little bit out there" — the ruined remnants of post-industrial societies, crumbling with neglect and so occupying a place "between culture and nature".
Sometimes unable to mount his camera high enough on the buildings to make a scan, he used a drone to take multiple photographs which he then converted into the 3D images we see in Ghost Shelter.
One of the buildings, Chemiewerk Rüdersdorf, is an abandoned chemical factory in the former East Germany, and another image is of Teufelsberg, a man-made hill built on the rubble of World War II, which became a US listening station during the Cold War.
"Its history is very layered — a Nazi military college that was never completed is buried under the rubble of Berlin, then the NSA (National Security Agency) built an echelon [high-tech information-interception system] on top of it," he said.
"Now it's a ruin where a lot of tourists go and a bunch of hippy permaculturists live around."
He created another eerie image of the Disney Castle — "the bright face of capitalism" — and points out that Walt Disney attended Nazi Party meetings in the 1930s.
"Scans, because they are imperfect and include little bits of sky and other background, create a 3D object that is a little bit scary.
"In a way, the castle image looks like it's been dredged up from the bottom of the ocean."
Architectural sculpture was becoming one of the mainstream forms of art during Bunkley's time at art school in the 1970s and 80s.
"I became interested in architecture in Europe that had something to do with the Cold War and had a sinister, abject quality.
"In 2015 I went to Berlin and began to search out these unusual buildings.
"At the same time I was working with the technology of 3D scanning of objects and decided to do that for large-scale buildings. This show encompasses work that has been done since 2016."
The video component of the exhibition, which runs until August 26, includes Six Sites depicting six post-industrial sites. One is of Immerath, a town that was dismantled and partially relocated to make way for a coal mine.
"I thought that was such a weird idea so I rented a car and drove all the way across Germany with my drone."
The Stalker is a series of sepia-toned images taken mostly in water or underwater and again has the theme of nature taking over. It references the film Stalker by Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky.
An accompanying display of wall fragments blasted with bullet holes and shrapnel depicts another level of ruin.
A pockmarked wall in the side of a chapel in Barcelona marks the place where 42 children died during the Spanish Civil War. Bunkley made full-sized scanned models of the wall fragments and painted the pockmarks with gold to symbolise healing.
He is looking forward to the Sarjeant returning home to the iconic, redeveloped building, saying the extension will most certainly elevate its status.
"It may become a major player in New Zealand as the extension will have state-of-the-art, new media facilities."
Bunkley's film Godzone has just been shortlisted for the Move Cine Arch Film Festival in Paris.
Get in touch
Do you have a story about the Sarjeant Gallery you would like to share? If so, contact relationships officer Jaki Arthur on jaki.arthur@sarjeant.org.nz or 06 3493268. To learn
more about Sarjeant Gallery exhibitions, the collection, and the redevelopment, visit
www.sarjeant.org.nz
The Help Support Our Sarjeant brochure is available from
Sarjeant on the Quay, 38 Taupo Quay, Whanganui.
Previous stories published in this column can be viewed on the gallery website.