'Everything' Is Fiona Jack's New 110 Metre-Long Light Show Lighting Up Auckland's CBD
25 years after 'Nothing' took over billboards around Auckland's CBD, Fiona Jack is back with her biggest art exhibition yet.
Twenty-five years after taking over billboards around Tāmaki Makaurau, artist Fiona Jack is once again bringing her unique art to the forefront of your daily commute, with her new exhibition Everything emblazoned across the CBD in lights.
An Auckland conceptual artist and senior lecturer at Auckland University, Jack's previous exhibitions have always looked at the Aotearoa's different sociopolitical issues. Her 2014 exhibition The Heraldry of Presence, constructed of flags and banners made by her and members of the local community, aimed to demonstrate the way they're both gathering devices and emancipatory tools.
But Jack is probably most well known for her iconic 1997 exhibition Nothing: a series of billboards dotted throughout Auckland city advertising "nothing". Set in a time of rapid development where billboards and advertising space were the hottest real estate in Auckland, Jack's exhibition was an ironic "critique of coercive advertising practices and their encroachment on public space and our collective psych".
Now, 25 years on she's utilised iconic inner-city light wall Lightship to make Everything, a sequel of sorts. Instead of multiple 'nothings' throughout the city, Jack says one giant 'everything' reflects on the global change in 25 years.
The Lightship, a 110-metre-long, 13-metre-high light wall set into the Ports of Auckland carpark can be viewed from Quay Street, city wharves, local buildings and the water.
As part of Everything, a stand-alone podcast has also been released, which can be listened to anywhere, but really should be enjoyed as a self-guided audio tour for a walk from Karangahape Road — where Nothing was once installed — to Everything on Bledisloe Wharf.
Lace up your sneakers up this weekend, don your headphones, and take a stroll between both the city landmarks to reflect on the change throughout the city over the last 25 years.
Everything by Fiona Jack will be displayed on Ports of Auckland's The Lightship on Bledisloe Wharf every night from February 9 until March 30, 2022. For more information or to download the accompanying podcast, visit the official website.
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