In the grand ballroom of one of Auckland’s best preserved historic houses, haunting images of long abandoned, dilapidated homes both pose ironic contrasts and find resonant echoes in a place that was itself saved from dereliction and like everything, continues to be subject to the ravages of time.
Produced within an international practise of ‘Urban Exploration’, this photographic work documents forgotten places and seeks to capture the beauty of contemporary ruins in an ‘art of the falling apart’. Its engagement with the site and its artefacts prompts thought on memory and commemoration – on what is cherished, preserved and saved; versus what is left behind and discarded.
On Sunday 5 June at 2pm the photographers Harley Plowman (aka Derelict NZ), Kelly Stacey (aka Forgotten NZ) and Robert Štrup(a member of Urbex NZ) will present a free public talk in the form of a slideshow tracing some of their adventures in urban exploration.
