Some thoughts on the COVID-19 pandemic and the Manners of Speaking – Te Pūkoro o Tāne exhibition video

On March 23rd, three days before this exhibition was due to close, I was informed by the gallery that they have closed the gallery due to the COVID-19 pandemic and I was given permission to film and take photographs before the lockdown date of March 25th.

In New Zealand things moved very fast. On Saturday evening we all heard news of a 4 step plan where we were at step 2, social distancing. Some libraries and swimming pools had closed on the Friday before. Then on Monday 23rd, when I heard of the gallery closure, we had moved to step 3 and then later in the day it was announced that New Zealand would go into lockdown, step 4, at midnight on Wednesday 25th.

The poetry reading to be hosted by Piet Nieuwland was cancelled but we met in the gallery (and kept our 2 metre distance from each other) and Piet read, solo. However the sound quality was terrible … and no possibility for another shoot.
Then Craig Denham shared his lockdown morning improvisations amongst his friends, and so we have day 4 as the soundtrack for this 12 minute video.

Forced into lockdown, like Craig, I have found these weeks thought provoking – two exhibitions I co-curated are in lockdown and two other exhibitions planned for 2020 are cancelled, yet this is nothing compared to the threat of losing one’s life or livelihood.

I must go and publish the video here on youtube and then I will return to another blog later. In the meantime here is a link to a blog I wrote for a Dutch Arts Review website “CONNECTING ART IN A TIME OF CRISIS: New Zealand –The Netherlands.”