Freeville
- 5 Jun - 27 Jun, 2014
Opening Preview: Wed 4 June, 5 -7 pm
Artist floor talk: Thurs 6 June, 11am
RAMP Gallery warmly invites you to the opening of Freeville by David Cook (Wellington) and Tim J. Veling (Christchurch) on Wed 4 June at 5pm.
You are also welcome to join the artists in the gallery on Thurs 5 June at 11am for a floor talk with RAMP curator, Kim Paton.
The Freeville Project is a photography-based project developed in collaboration with students and staff of Freeville Primary School in New Brighton, Christchurch, NZ. The result of an intensive workshop with 67 students; discussing ideas of community and future vision for the school environment in light of the impending closure of their school (due to regional earthquake damage).
Freeville School is situated on what is now highly contestable land, in 2016, the Freeville School site will be abandoned and operate solely from an alternative school site in New Brighton, where Freeville and two other local schools will be merged. Freeville School buildings and facilities, situated on land sold to the Ministry of Education by the Free family for the purpose of building an education facility, are scheduled to be demolished soon after.
The built environment that constitutes the school will disappear, but the future for the land itself is uncertain. It is especially ambiguous if allowance will be made for the school’s surrounding community to contribute ideas to inform the redevelopment. This project aims within the current ambiguous space to collaborate with remaining students and staff of Freeville School and help them re-imagine and articulate their own vision for the land’s future.
The finished body of work was first exhibited as billboard-sized prints in the local New Brighton shopping mall, as part of the TEZA (Transitional Economic Zone of Aotearoa), produced by Letting Space in November 2013. The RAMP exhibition is a reconfiguration of the show incorporating new work. The final body of work will be kept within Place in Time’s digital archive at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, NZ.
Project commissioned by TEZA: http://teza.org.nz
Produced by Letting Space www.lettingspace.org.nz
Collaborators: 67 Freeville Primary School pupils / Teachers: Tracey Barber, Nicole Cunningham, Bernice Swain & Sharon Thompson / Facilitators and photographers: David Cook & Tim J. Veling / Assistants: Bayley Corfield, David Draper & Hannah Watkinson
Funding partners: Wintec / University of Canterbury / Massey University / Canterbury Community Trust / Chartwell Trust / Creative New Zealand
