April 2012

Building Update

After the 22 February 2011 earthquake the decision was made to close COCA Gallery for an interim period so the damaged building could be assessed and arrangements made for its repair. While the high rise red stickered Gallery Apartments stood we were hampered in our move forward. The Gallery Apartments are now down with final clearing of the site, taking place. The building to the east side of COCA is also down. Demolition of the building on the corner of Gloucester and Durham Streets has begun and soon the COCA building will have a clear Avon River view! The COCA building engineering reports are now complete and a geotech survey has been booked. Everything is now in the hands of the insurance company.

Window Projects

Thursday 5 April brought a new kind of exhibition to COCA , an inside out one.

Curator Chloe Geoghegan has developed two innovative window projects for COCA during this interim period. The first, 'Screensaver' by Ed Lust was launched on 5 April with a lively opening event at 8pm in an eerily quite and desolate Gloucester Street. The second, Sam Eng's 'We Won't Need Legs To Stand', will follow next month. All three of the participants are Christchurch locals. It has been crucial to the CSA Trust Board that the only part of the gallery able to be accessed in the building's current state – the front window and carport –should be used in a way that allows the artists and curator to explore both the reality of our new cultural landscapes as well as current ways of living and working in Christchurch. The decision to act on this concept was made in mid-2011,
however due to restricted access to Gloucester St, projects were unable to proceed until neighbouring demolitions had been completed.

For the artists and curator working within COCA 's window, the need to respond to the inherently fractured nature of Christchurch is readily evident on Gloucester St. Here, the numerous buildings that have arisen around COCA for decades have been gradually condemned and demolished over the past year and still
are being removed, leaving all manner of structural remnants adjacent as the window projects have been constructed. It is the curatorial intention for part of this unsettling new landscape at COCA 's doorstep
to resonate through Lust and Eng's time and site-specific installations in the window. To simply stand before the window installation while listening to the surrounding cacophony of the central city, provides an unnerving and timely undertone to the window projects.

Ed Lust's 'Screensaver' makes use of the undistinguished COCA carport, which becomes a temporary cinema for the passer-by. 'Screensaver' is made up of a complex gathering of multimedia projections and cinematic set installation, which at first appears to sit within a standard Christchurch street scene of earthworks and demolition. Upon a second inspection, it becomes clear that the gallery has become an enlivened force and with every breath something spontaneous and incredible emerges.

Lust describes the unstable animations of 'Screensaver' as having a life of their own: "Nebulous growths and astronomical amoebas move across the screen, simultaneously pixilated and biological. Arhythmically, they grow and disintegrate over time, exhibiting continual regeneration of colour and form. The video will play around-the-clock, forever in April, or until we've blown all of our bulbs."

It is with great excitement that COCA can once again present to the Christchurch public two new and innovative contemporary art exhibitions that can only be seen from the outside in, and that – unlike our regular visiting hours – will be able to be viewed at any time during the day or night over the month of April.

The CSA Trust would like to take this opportunity to thank Creative New Zealand for their support of the
Window Projects.

Ed Lust's Screen Saver will run in the window of COCA 24hrs/7 days until it closes on Sunday 6 May. More information at cocawindowprojects.co.nz

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66 Gloucester St
P O Box 772
Christchurch
New Zealand

info@coca.org.nz