Dunedin’s Cabinet of Curiosities

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When:

Tue 25 Oct ’11, 5:30pm–7:30pm	Saving
Wed 26 Oct ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Thu 27 Oct ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Fri 28 Oct ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Sat 29 Oct ’11, 11:00am–3:00pm	Saving
Tue 1 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Wed 2 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Thu 3 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Fri 4 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Sat 5 Nov ’11, 12:00pm–3:00pm	Saving
Tue 8 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Wed 9 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Thu 10 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Fri 11 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Sat 12 Nov ’11, 12:00pm–3:00pm	Saving
Tue 15 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Wed 16 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Thu 17 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Fri 18 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Sat 19 Nov ’11, 12:00pm–3:00pm	Saving
Tue 22 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Wed 23 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Thu 24 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Fri 25 Nov ’11, 11:00am–5:00pm	Saving
Sat 26 Nov ’11, 12:00pm–3:00pm	Saving
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Where: Blue Oyster Art Project Space, 24b Moray Place, Dunedin Show map

Restrictions: All Ages

Ticket Information:

Admission: Free

Website:

Blue Oyster website

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Exhibition preview – Tuesday 25th October 2011, 5.30pm

Featuring Dan Roberts, Anne-Mieke Ytsma, Craig Freeborn and Mariya Semenova. Curated by Suzanne Claessen.

The Blue Oyster’s Reading Room has been transformed by several Dunedin artists into a Cabinet of Curiosities. This experimental space shows sculpture, jewellery, painting and photography exploring the concept of 'Kunst- und Wunderkammern' (art and wonder room). This is a type of exhibition and collection space that emerged in Europe in the seventeenth century in which collectors sought to create mini-cosms of the world by acquiring and presenting a plethora of objects and artefacts.

In the Cabinet of Curiosities a tension between fiction and science becomes visible through artefacts that are presented as both scientific objects and unreliable story-telling creations. From a wild unicorn captured by scientists exploring the ‘new land’ to a cave painting created by an unknown Dunedin-based community – these are elements of one particular Dunedin Myth.

The Cabinet of Curiosities explores elements of story telling – the primitive and irresistible desire we all have to construct narratives about our surroundings and histories. It also raises questions about exhibition environments that are often taken for granted: is it a museum? A gallery? A scientific archive? A domestic display space? Or is it a personal obsession? The viewer is challenged to distinguish between elements recognised from the outside world and from their own imagination.

Artist and curator information:

Dan Roberts is currently studying at the Dunedin School of Art. Anne-Mieke Ytsma is a Dunedin-based jeweller, who owns the jewellery label Underground Sundae. Art school drop-out and anxiety-ridden neo-figurative painter Craig Freeborn is an artist based in Dunedin. Mariya Semenova majors in photography at the Dunedin School of Art.

The Cabinet of Curiosities exhibition is part of the curatorial internship Suzanne Claessen is undertaking as part of her Museum Studies course at the University of Amsterdam.

Exhibition runs from October 25 2011 - November 26 2011.