Here + There

Brian Culy + Leanne Culy

SPA_CE
3 Market St, Napier

11 August - 11 September 2021

Opening Wednesday 11 August, 5-7pm

Brian and Leanne Culy have been creative collaborators for some time. We bring them together for Here and There. Following a South Island road trip with their well equipped caravan Brian and Leanne present work from this time with photographs and watercolours.

HERE
The closed borders meant it was a golden opportunity to travel in our country, we were strangers in our own land, lonesome visitors. Undeniable beauty was there but the overwhelming feeling of abandonment presented itself.

These images I selected from our South Island road trip is my response to that.

Brian Culy, 2021

THERE
My work on the face of it has no reference to reality, but it is actually not far from the truth. Like a re written history these gardens are a metaphor for the changing landscape and where we are heading. Invasive garden glories are entangled in our landscape telling stories of our colonial advance to bring colour to our green and brown. I have to admit when travelling around the South Island towards the end of Summer, my enthusiasm for the natural beauty waned. The grimness of the colourless landscape mixed with long stretches of industrial alterations depressed me! A half cast landscape parading its beauty but with no real identity.

Leanne Culy, 2021.