Adios Andrew

Many of you will know the Gallery’s Senior Preparator, Andrew Geros, who has dedicated the past thirty-five years to working with us to create extraordinary environments for our exhibition programme. Andrew certainly isn’t one to blow his own trumpet but we know just how much his work has meant to the many artists he has worked with over the decades and to us, his colleagues at the Gallery.

The end of May sees us farewelling Andrew in his Senior Preparator role at the DPAG.  He’ll be starting new adventures in a well-deserved retirement and is looking forward to some international travel – and lots of it!

His first port of call will be Mexico, where his son lives, and then he and his partner Linda plan to revisit some favourite locations around the world – particularly those in which their children now reside.

I asked Andrew what some of his more memorable moments at the Gallery have been –

Some of the structures and exhibition environments he had been asked to create were certainly memorable – in particular, a replica of a 19th century Moroccan marketplace over two gallery areas – which included buildings with detailed masonry and minarets and a marketplace complete with produce – to a two-story replica of the back end of Abel Tasman’s ship the Zeehaen, that people entered an exhibition through…

Andrew also fondly remembered working with artist Ralph Hotere on an installation called No. 8 – in which large rolls of No. 8 wire were fastened strategically to the ceiling of an exhibition space and then released to uncoil into sculptural forms. When they had completed the final release of wire in this installation they noticed a visitor looking at them from the Gallery entrance and laughing. They asked him what was funny and he explained that, as a farmer, he had fired workers for doing exactly what they had been doing. Andrew remembered that Hotere then invited the man to come into the exhibition space, where he explained the ideas behind the installation and the other works in his exhibition. An hour later, the visitor left full of admiration for Hotere and his work… and keen to unroll a roll or two of No. 8 wire in his own barn!

Thank you, Andrew, for everything that you have helped create and be a part of at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. We all wish you well in your adventures and look forward to receiving postcards from some exotic locales!

Noho ora mai, Tim Pollock 
Exhibitions and Collection  Manager, Dunedin Public Art Gallery