body/building

‘Inclusion, Division. Inclusion, Division. Inclusion, Division. Inclusion, Division.’ These words are recited by a ‘host’ as part of Ruth Buchanan’s Priorities (2016/2018) yet they might also make up a sort of motto or mantra for the exhibition The Walters Prize 2018. The ninth iteration of this biennial award and corresponding exhibition includes four projects that represent ‘the most outstanding contributions to contemporary art in New Zealand in the preceding two-year period’ as selected by an independent jury made up of Stephen Cleland, Allan Smith, Lara Strongman and Megan Tamati-Quennell. The winner will be determined later this year by Adriano Pedrosa, Artistic Director at Brazil’s São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP).

All four artworks are accommodated by the Chartwell Gallery, a space that lends itself to be divided into three parts, so that the very building itself seems to push up against or resist an exhibition made up of four projects. At the start the lighting is slightly dimmed. A large black structure seems to hover upon fluorescent light; on approaching it, a long ramp acts as a physical invitation to gallery visitors. Stepping up onto a graphic rendering of an eye in vinyl, following the directional arrow symbols and walking up the ramp feels like traversing a sky bridge, although at the other side is a decagon-shaped dais rather than an aeroplane. Indeed the installation (2017/2018) by Jess Johnson and Simon Ward evokes a point of departure, a star-gate concourse with five elevated monitors and speakers presenting five different worlds. Echoing one of the