New in the Rear Window
and Puaka Matariki
14 June 2022
In early June, Natasha Matila-Smith’s video work 7 Minutes in Heaven (2021) was installed in the Rear Window space. 7 Minutes in Heaven was originally commissioned, in conjunction with several of Matila-Smith’s banner works, for the Murray Art Museum Albury in New South Wales, Australia, as part of the group exhibition Choose Happiness. The exhibition brought together artworks that explored the spectrums and transience of feelings of happiness. Matila-Smith explores notions of desire, romance, loneliness and the skewed or fictionalised nature of public performance through moving image, photography and text. In this moving portrait, she contemplates and plays with the idea of everyday life, both online and offline, as being a kind of performance. 7 Minutes in Heaven, along with Neihana Gordon-Stables’ I like this queer scene but I’ve slept with both of them (2017), which preceded it, is part of a programme curated by Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s 2021 curatorial intern Piupiu Maya Turei, and several more works will follow over the coming months. Coming up soon, too, is He kōrero wheriko / A Glittering Story, a free whānau event to celebrate Puaka Matariki. Join our special guest kaikōrero Waiariki Parata-Taiapa as he shares stories of Puaka Matariki under the glittering canopy of The Golden Bearing – a majestic sculpture by leading contemporary artist Reuben Paterson. This family friendly story time will conclude with an opportunity to enjoy a special evening experience in the exhibition Kai tua o te heti / Beyond the Hedge and a specially made cookie to take home.
Noho ora maiSimon PalenskiIhupukutaka Kairauhī Curatorial Intern, Dunedin Public Art Gallery[image: NATASHA MATILA-SMITH 7 Minutes in Heaven 2021. Film still. Courtesy of the artist]