Play On

Generated from the Adam Art Gallery's unfolding Sound Check research programme Play on is the first in an occasional series of curated exhibitions designed to investigate the relationships between sound and art.

"For this exhibition curator Christina Barton brings together four major works produced in the 1990s by leading New Zealand contemporary artists, and stages these referentially-rich installations alongside a newly commissioned work. Julian Dashper's The Big Bang Theory (1992-1993), Michael Parekowhai's Ten Guitars (1999), Slave Piano's Slave Pianos (of the Art Cult) (1998-1999), and Terry Urbahn's The Karaokes (1995-1997), are joined by Ava Seymour's 11 Bars of Oboe (2010).

Each work uses an aspect of music as a metaphor for thinking about art and art history. Considering the significant ways these installations reflect the social, cultural and critical turns of the 1990s and beyond, and drawing connections between them in terms of their use of music as both subject and form, Play On raises important questions about what art is and how culture works."