Artspace Aotearoa (Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland) and Blue Oyster Art Project Space (Ōtepoti Dunedin) are excited to partner in an exchange for TENT.

BIG FISH LITTLE BOAT opens a conversation about what it means to be a practicing artist at opposite ends of the country; developing a bond between the two galleries with the goal of future north/south collaboration.

Ed Ritchie considers architectural features from the facades of buildings that have housed Blue Oyster over the past two decades. Drawn from memories not measurements, Ritchie's work considers the Blue Oyster archive and incorporates copper, a nod to the material interest of Blue Oyster's previous anniversary exhibitions. Video footage of this physical installation, presented in Blue Oyster's window at 16 Dowling Street, Ōtepoti, is available to view on our website 4-7 November.

Recently returning to Aotearoa from studying at Monash University, Naarm Melbourne, Jo Bragg will be writing for Artspace Aotearoa’s new artist exhibition, Cruel Optimism. Extending their investment in queer art theory, Bragg grapples with the opacities and obscurities of the term ‘queer’, and proposes that its failures and slippages are sites for queer utility. For TENT, Jo Bragg will be presenting a video work available to view 4 - 7 November from the Blue Oyster Art Project Space website here.

ED RITCHIE:

Based in Ōtepoti, Ed Ritchie has a predominantly site-specific, installation based practice often responding to architectural attributes of given space or echoing familiar mechanisms through assemblage. Ritchie completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Hons) in 2017 through the Dunedin School of Art and has since become a founder and co-facilitator of ARI Favour. Recent exhibitions include: Central Heating, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Ōtepoti (2021); Lay in Measures, Enjoy Contemporary, Wellington (2021) Hush Swarms, Hot lunch, Ōtautahi Christchurch (2020); Console Whispers, Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Ōtepoti (2019).

JO BRAGG:

Jo Bragg is an Aotearoa born and based visual artist, writer and researcher making work informed by critical, social, and queer art theory. Bragg is the original co-founder of MEANWHILE Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. They recently completed an MFA by Research (Hons) at Monash University, Naarm Melbourne, and are currently a Collective Member with RM Gallery in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.