16 Jun 2011
Motorbikes are the feature of two upcoming shows on display at the Papakura Art Gallery, from 18 June.
Viewers will get to experience high velocity sensations on a large scale through Alex Monteith’s dvd-based work - Looping manoeuvre with Shaun Harris and onboard dual-cams for two-channel video installation.
Meanwhile, in an adjacent gallery, Motocross by Amanda A’Hara, features photographs taken at the Ardmore motocross track between 2005 and 2006.
Alex Monteith’s split screen projection is a playing of simultaneous front and rear recordings shot at Taupo Motorsport Park, in February 2008, at speeds of up to 270kph from the GSXR motorcycle of New Zealand racing legend, and two times Isle of ManTTwinner, Shaun Harris.
Gallery curator Tracey Williams said: “Bringing the two shows to Papakura and showing them alongside one another is an exciting opportunity for the local community.”
Williams was determined to share Alex Monteith’s work with the people of Papakura when she commenced her role in January, as work of such calibre is often inaccessible for various reasons in provincial locales.
“Motocross, meanwhile, quietly and deftly opens a metaphorical window out from Monteith’s work directly onto the local community – some of whom are featured in the photographs”.
Alex Monteith, an Arts Foundation New Generation Award recipient and finalist in the 2010 Walters Prize at the Auckland Art Gallery, has been described as one of the most exciting new generation artists.
“Alex Monteith has the rare ability to penetrate the physical and psychological terrain of performative action, her engagement with specific communities associated with highly addictive adrenaline-fuelled sports is particularly compelling,” says Govett Brewster Art Gallery director Rhana Devenport
Amanda A’Hara has been fascinated by the rituals and aesthetic of Motocross since attending meets with her father and brothers as a teenager. Her photographs capture young people in a period of transition, amplifying their sensitivity through capturing in images ‘awkwardness shrouded by confidence’.
A’Hara, an MFA graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts, has said her practice emanates from a desire to encapsulate and study the way identity is formed and expressed, particularly where it is pre-defined by a group's common uniform or activity.
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