Manapouri: Art, Power, Protest
National Library Gallery
30 November 2007 - 15 March 2008
Free entry
A new exhibition at the National Library Gallery shows that Lake Manapouri is more than just a body of water. It is a hotly contested site that occupies a complex position in the cultural and political histories of Aotearoa.
Māori legends shroud the lake with mystery and power. Tourist imagery promises an awe-inspiring scenic wonderland. Explorers, surveyors, tourists and artists have long been drawn to the majestic 'lake of the sorrowful heart'. More recently, this trek has been made by filmmakers scouting locations for elven villages.
It is not only artists who have captured the power of Lake Manapouri. The Manapouri power station was constructed in the late 1960s to harness the lake's hydroelectric potential. While widely acknowledged as one of the country’s greatest engineering achievements, it is also one of its most controversial. The 'Save Manapouri' campaign that sprang up to oppose the industrial development of the lake is credited with awakening an environmental consciousness in this country.
This exhibition explores Manapouri as a site for art, industrial development and environmental protest. Grand landscape paintings and colonial photography jostle with tourist imagery and industrial propaganda praising the benefits of hydroelectric power. Cries of 'Save Manapouri' and protest songs that 'damn the dam' fight to be heard above the whirl of tunnel drilling machinery.
Manapouri: Art, Power, Protest showcases the range and variety of collection materials held in the Alexander Turnbull Library. The use of paintings, photography, maps, manuscripts, printed ephemera, sound recordings, oral histories and moving images attests to the breadth of the Library’s collections, and to Lake Manapouri's hold on the cultural imagination.
A highlight of the exhibition is a collection of contemporary photography by Mark Adams, Wayne Barrar, Craig Potton and Haru Sameshima. These photographers have been drawn to the lake as a contested site that opens up a range of histories, issues and agendas that have ongoing cultural relevance and importance.
Download high-resolution publicity images
For further information and interviews
Aaron Lister, Curator, National Library Gallery
Phone (04) 474 3000, extension 8908
Email aaron.lister@natlib.govt.nz
Susan Bartel, Public Relations Manager, National Library Gallery
Phone (04) 474 3119 or 027 223 5159
Fax (04) 474 3063
