Dane mitchell at The Christchurch Art Gallery
Te Puna o Waiwhetū

August 1, 2020

Dane Mitchell’s Post hoc conjures the ghosts of our past, calling up millions of lost, extinct and obsolete things. From submerged atolls to failed utopias, extinct languages to tax havens, long lists of lost entities are announced within an echo-free chamber and transmitted to cell-phone towers disguised as trees around the city. They accumulate in the Gallery in printed form, amassing as a melancholy archive of loss. Post hoc reflects on our constant demand for growth and progress, highlighting the unrelenting new losses and extinctions occurring as our present moment becomes the past. For some, this data is all that remains.

“Dane Mitchell’s practice calls attention to all we’ve lost as a result of the modern emphasis on growth and progress."
-Felicity Milburn, head curator, Christchurch Art Gallery.

Dane Mitchell’s practice is concerned with the physical properties of the intangible and visible manifestations of other dimensions. His work teases out the potential for objects and ideas to appear and disappear, and our ability to perceive or imagine transfiguration. His practice evokes a connection between the sensual and the conscious. It speculates on what is material and explores systems of knowledge or belief and people’s experiences of them.

Join Dane Mitchell in conversation about his project Post hoc on Sunday, August 2, at 3 pm at the Christchurch Art Gallery.

Dane Mitchell acknowledges the support of Creative New Zealand and NZ at Venice Patrons and Partners in the realisation of Post hoc at the 58th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale), 2019.

Post Hoc Core Team Members:

Commissioner: Dame Jenny Gibbs | Lead Curator: Dr Zara Stanhope | Project Curator: Chris Sharp | Project Director: Jude Chambers

Museum exhibition curated by: Felicity Milburn

Open 10am until 5pm daily
Free entry

Corner Worcester Boulevard and Montreal Street 
Christchurch, New Zealand
info@christchurchartgallery.org.nz
Tel (+64 3) 941 7300