Whether it's a brand like 100% Pure or paintings and film of a rural idyll, we've become familiar in Aotearoa New Zealand with the tension between our depiction of the landscape, and the reality when we consider the effects on it of economic and social development.
Similar tensions are at play in what is being billed as the first show of contemporary Japanese art in New Zealand in 20 years: Disruptive Landscapes, on until August 24 at Christchurch Art Gallery .
Curator Melanie Oliver selected video work over several research trips to Japan and was particularly inspired by artists influenced by what became known in Japanese film after the late 1960s as 'landscape theory'. A view of the landscape loaded with politics.
It was Masao Adachi's 1969 film A.K.A. Serial Killer that first defined Japanese 'landscape theory. Variously labelled as 'anti-art' and 'anti-documentary', the film has a special screening at the gallery on May 17.
The Japan Foundation have also provided funding for all the artists to come to Christchurch June 14-18 for performances and talks.
Melanie Oliver has, since August been Senior Curator at Monash University Museum of Art in Melbourne and was previously Curator at Christchurch Art Gallery, where she has returned to for this exhibition.
