Harboured

Overview

Enjoy Public Art Gallery has been bringing us Wellingtonians the best in international and local talent since it first opened its Cuba Street doors in June 2000, and its latest offering is no less impressive that the ones before. Introducing Harboured, the new solo exhibition by USA native and Port of Auckland resident photographer and conceptual artist Mickey Smith, opening February 5^th.

As a child, Mickey’s dad was part of the Merchant Marine (a host of US ships that carries imports/exports at times of peace, and troops and war materials during war) meaning she spent much of her early years in and around the shipping industry. This led Mickey to connect visually and emotionally with New Zealand, as our island nation is surrounded by water, and harbours, and ships. Harboured explores the notion of the contempary immigrant, and is a real time exchange between Mickey’s hometown Port of Duluth and the Port of Auckland, where she is currently establishing a new life.

Harboured documents this personal narrative, looks at the links of Mickey’s past life, and what is to come, portrayed as large-scale textile photographs together with live video feed. These works negotiate the distances between father and daughter, Duluth and Auckland, and find comfort in the familiar, explore her integration in a new society, and navigate vast physical and emotional distances.

The exhibition runs from 5^th-28^th of February.