some time
Gabby O’Connor

by Kathryn Tsui

Artist Gabby O'Connor has long been fascinated by the history and physical nature of Antarctica which she reconstructs in her latest installation, some time, a luminous multifaceted sculptural interpretation of the edge of the Antarctic Ross Ice Shelf at the point of collapse.

Made with thousands of tissue paper sheets the labour intensive installation has been entirely hand dyed and cut into individual geometric shapes, before being assembled. Painstakingly created some time represents the time it has taken to form the icy continent and now the speed at which it is melting. The materials of the installation being paper and light also reflect the immense and delicate ecosystem of Antarctica and the current effect of climate change.

some time plays with the architecture of the gallery, invading the space with a foreboding glacial cliff face. The artist says, “the angles and geometries are a space to contemplate the nature of ice, our position in the world and the space we inhabit and the edges potential to transform unexpectedly”.

O’Connor’s work reflects on Robert Falcon Scott and his crew's final and fatal expedition in Antarctica. The artist is intrigued by the Ross Ice Shelf for the slightly macabre fact that it will eventually calve off icebergs containing the bodies of Scott and his crew. In an earlier work, What lies beneath (2011) at the City Gallery Wellington, the artist constructed the rarely seen submerged part of an iceberg with the help of NIWA Oceanographer, Craig Stevens.

some time (2013)
Hand dyed and lacquered tissue paper, staples.

Artist biography
Gabby O’Connor is a Wellington based artist with a practice grounded in installation. The artist holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of New South Wales, College of Fine Arts. Since 1995 O’Connor has exhibited nationally and internationally in Japan, Canada, Holland, Australia and the UK. In 2011, she produced a solo exhibition What lies beneath at the City Gallery Wellington. This latest Antarctic installation is the first arts project in New Zealand to be funded by Boosted, a crowdfunding initiative for creative projects in New Zealand recently established by the Arts Foundation. O’Connor continues to collaborate with scientists and is currently working on a commission with award winning physicist Professor Shaun Hendy.

Artist acknowledgments
The artist would like to acknowledge the generous support of; the individual Boosted campaign funders, Shio Otani, Martin Kwok, Corban Estate Arts Centre, Craig Stevens, Ben Stevens, Katharine Allard and the installation volunteers; Elaine, Anne-Sophie, Jane l, Jane P, Francis, Alamein, Kenneth, Rainer, Urmilla, Vanessa, Jacqueline and Brigette.

Untouched as Unknown
Jae Hoon lee

by Kathryn Tsui

Untouched as Unknown features digitally re-mastered landscapes from Nepal and Antarctica where artist Jae Hoon Lee travelled in 2012 under the Antarctica New Zealand Arts Fellowship Programme. Lee’s confronting and seamless photographic landscapes are composed from numerous individual images taken over a period of time and from varying perspectives to combine reality and the virtual.

Travelling is central to his art practice, in the last five years the artist has travelled to and captured Egypt, India, China, Mexico, Nepal and most recently Antarctica. In the vast mountain ranges of Nepal and endless ice fields of Antarctica, Lee holds in balance a visual sense of dislocation and unity in these foreign and overpowering places.


Specific to his time in Antarctica, Jae Hoon Lee produced Dry Valley, Pressure Ridge and Waiting for your call (all works 2012). In Pressure Ridge the artist flawlessly montages sections of the Scott Base exercise ground with red flags that signal the safe passageways through the potentially treacherous ice field, through his collaging he creates unknown routes that do not exist. Waiting for your call, a large hypnotic projection of the vast Pacific Ocean and solid sea ice is taken from the perspective of Robert Falcon Scott’s first hut in Antarctica.


In Annapurna and Trekking (both 2010) the artist reworks countless images taken while hiking the well-known Annapurna trek in Nepal. Lee retouches and seamlessly merges together a succession of frames taken at different times throughout the trail to construct an alternative journey or location.


Jae Hoon Lee terms his still and moving images as digitally collaged photography using Photoshop. The artist focuses on digital photography as an easy documental tool that allows him to capture source imagery from distant destinations.

This exhibition is part of the Auckland Festival of Photography 2013.


Artist biography
Jae Hoon Lee is a Korean born, Auckland based artist with an art practice centred in photography. The artist completed a Doctorate in Fine Arts in 2012 from Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland University. Lee has exhibited extensively, nationally, in Australia and Asia. His work can be found in the art collections of Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, James Wallace Arts Trust, Auckland, University of Auckland.