Thisbe, Pheasbin & The Tall Tahitians

The Sarjeant Gallery's permanent collection consists of over five and a half thousand artworks, spanning four centuries of European and New Zealand art history. As with any collection, this one has grown organically and is rich, varied and eclectic, comprised of gifts and acquisitions. Each work in the collection has its own narrative, subject, provenance and often silence.

This exhibition takes as its starting point some recent acquisitions that have come into the collection, mostly as a result of the gallery's artist-in-residence programme at Tylee Cottage. Established in 1986, this programme has hosted over thirty artists all of whom have contributed to the gallery's collection via a work or works that are offered in exchange for a monthly stipend during the residency. This exchange has provided a vital and lively thread to the gallery's holdings and each new work has sparked new conversations with others. The exhibition on offer here doesn't aim to give visitors a comprehensive view of the collection but rather glimpses of the many chapters on offer.

The title is taken from the names of three works which up until now couldn't be more disparate: the ghostly Thisbe by Edward Burne Jones; a surreal feathered dog entitled Pheasbin by Australian artist Emily Valentine and the tall and elegant figures of the Tall Tahitians, hand stitched by Auckland-based artist Christine Hellyar. Although these works have never been shown in the same gallery space before and are probably not likely to be again, this exhibition allows them to be momentarily connected through that strange inventory called time. All three have been gifted to the gallery and add to the rich atlas of this collection. We hope you enjoy this eclectic selection of works.