Gus Fisher Gallery stands on the city’s original shoreline. Overlooking Point Britomart, Shortland Street was the first main street in Auckland. The land beyond the gallery to the current shoreline is reclaimed wharf. The exhibition’s title refers to a place in Official Bay called The Slipping Away / Te Hororoa which was the site of a historic tragedy when part of a pā slipped into the sea causing a number of people to perish. This was seen as a bad omen and was thought to foretell the later invasion of Ngāti Whātua from the North West. The exhibition’s multifaceted title therefore refers to a physical place, a historic tragedy and a possible warning of things to come.
The Slipping Away brings together pivotal works by leading artists to explore the duality of oceans and humankind. Conceived as an immersive experience, The Slipping Away will take visitors on a journey above and below the ocean through filmic interpretations of the deep sea and light-based installations of the water from above. Acknowledging the ocean as a living breathing entity, we will forge important discussions on the health of our seas and enable discourse on the personhood of Moana. We aim to prompt pertinent conversations about sustainability, plastic pollution and rising sea levels at a point of criticality in 2019.
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