From dusk till dawn

Following the successful Wayne Youle mural launch in Sydenham earlier this week, the Christchurch Art Gallery will open another work of art as part of its Outer Spaces programme tomorrow (Friday 23).

The old white weatherboard house opposite the Gallery on Worcester Boulevard will come alive after dark with a video projection entitled The creation of the world by New Zealand artist Ronnie van Hout, who grew up in Christchurch.

Director Jenny Harper says, “The Gallery's Outer Spaces programme is all about adding some moments of curiosity, wonder, colour and surprise to the inner city. And with Ronnie's new dusk-till-dawn video work the emphasis is on surprise.

“It is a fitting follow-up to Wayne Youle's spectacular mural in Sydenham, with humour being central to both artists' work. It will be worth making a trip to the city to see this larger-than-life projection."

Melbourne-based Van Hout is well known to Christchurch audiences for making art that is both haunting and funny, and his new video projection is no exception. The creation of the world will surprise audiences when they look through the upstairs window of the ‘haunted house’ to see the artist releasing some strange new ‘creations’ – miniature versions of himself.

Trained at Canterbury School of Fine Art, van Hout has often made art about houses and the memories and presences inside them. In 2001 he made a model of the Aranui home where he grew up, and filled one of its miniature bedrooms with a little video portrait of himself – the grown-up Ronnie imitating his younger self. This sculpture, called House and School, is in the collection of Christchurch Art Gallery.

Additional Outer Spaces projects are being planned for 2012.