Liz Rowe has constructed a wall of soap for her project Never Too Careful. Positioned to obstruct the usual path trodden through the gallery, Rowe aims to challenge our perceptions of place and space and especially territorialised notions of identity, belonging and security.
Past Exhibition
Tūrei 2 -
Hātarei 27
Noema
Tuesday 2 -
Saturday 27
November
2010
Liz Rowe has constructed a wall of soap for her project Never Too Careful. Positioned to obstruct the usual path trodden through the gallery, Rowe aims to challenge our perceptions of place and space and especially territorialised notions of identity, belonging and security. Her barrier of soap and cleanliness evokes post 9/11 border security paranoia and immigration policies grounded in the xenophobic fear of being overwhelmed by torrents of 'the great unwashed masses'.
Using the iconically kiwi brand of Sunlight soap Rowe brings this message home.Visually similar to residential building bricks, she shows these ideas operating in the suburban obsession with domestic cleanliness and tacit homogeneity. Sounds of people moving around on the other side of the wall echo out, leaving viewer to wonder whether they are on the right side or the wrong side, whether they are on the inside or the outside and whether the other side is perhaps a better place to be.
Presented alongside Juan James Sydney Simon Papillon et Merci et au Revoir and Miranda Bellamy 99 Ways to Solve Global Warming . In these shows the artists confront us with contemporary social and environmental problems and the barriers to change that continue to exist. Their works stand as a challenge to revise set patterns of thinking and doing and a provocation to look for solutions at a personal level.
