New show brings archive of photos into the light
A formerly private archive of 3000 photographs of Pacific Islands architecture taken across 40 years will go on display in Christchurch next week.
The photographs were taken by academic Mike Austin during his travels from the late 1960s to 2006 in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Hawaii and Rapa Nui. They capture traditional Pacific Island buildings, carvings and modern housing.
They are being displayed in Christchurch by Auckland gallery Objectspace, which specialises in architecture, craft and design.
The gallery is opening a new space in the former Warren and Mahoney studio on Cambridge Tce that will operate until at least December.
ObjectSpace director Kim Paton said Austin’s archive of photographs would be on display from March 16. The gallery was contacted by Austin’s family asking if it was interested in the photographs, which were stored on thousands of slides in cardboard box files.
‘‘It was very easy to tell that it was something very special,’’ Paton said.
‘‘We have been digitising his entire archive so it can be housed at a library or university that is willing to take it on.
‘‘We want them to be accessed by future students.
‘‘He argued for the values of Pasifika and Maori architecture when very few other Pā kehā were looking at that.’’
Paton said Christchurch was the perfect place to create a new satellite gallery. ‘‘I don’t know if there is a richer city for architecture in New Zealand than Christchurch. I am from Christchurch. ‘‘It is a place that is in my heart.’’ She said Warren and Mahoney’s 1962 studio was the perfect location for the gallery. ‘‘It is a thrill just going to see that building.’’
She hoped the gallery might create a permanent home in Christchurch. ‘‘We will see how well it goes. ‘‘There is a possibility that it could continue after December.’’