05Oct

27Oct

ETA (Edith’s Talent Agency) | Edith Amituanai

Edith Amituanai

ETA (Edith’s Talent Agency)

5  October – 27 October 2017

Anna Miles Gallery 

Central Auckland

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Exhibition Details

ETA (Edith’s Talent Agency) | Edith Amituanai

Opening Thurs 5 October 6-8pm

Artist Talk Sun 15 October at 1pm

Exhibition runs until Friday 27 October at 3pm
Gallery hours: Thursdays – Saturdays 11-3 & by appointment

Edith Amituanai likes to use the term ‘on location’ – “to tell others what I’ve
been up to . . . ‘On location’ means I’ve been immersed in some strange and
complicated place and requires time to understand. I’ve been working in
Ranui, masquerading as a kind of youth worker who uses art as a vehicle to
engage young people. I’ve spent the last 4 years getting off my driveway to
photograph a kind of public life.”

Her long awaited ETA follows on from #keeponkimiora at Hastings Art
Gallery earlier this year. This exhibition brought together photographs made
by Edith and students and staff of Flaxmere’s Kimiora Community School that
she worked with during a 5 week residency. For more on #keeponkimiora
see – http://pantograph-punch.com/post/review-keeponkimiora

In contrast, ETA sees Edith back on the streets of Ranui, her West Auckland
suburb. The exhibition brings together documentary/street portraiture style
images as well as the collection of over 100 polaroid portraits she has made
of the ‘local talent’ (that are occasionally signed and otherwise embellished
by their subjects). Auckland Art Gallery Curator, Julia Waite who has
contributed an article to the Zine accompanying the exhibition, explains: “ETA
is the result of four years of working in [Edith’s] local West Auckland
neighbourhood, a place that demands new methodologies, new ways of
working with the community, and new thinking in relation to the
representation of the subject.”

Edith’s Zine (based on a friendship book) that will be launched at the
exhibition, is her first, ‘photobook’. It’s a book that incorporates the full range
of photographic formats she has used in her neighbourhood — a spectrum of
old and new, specialist and amateur . . . Instax Polaroid to medium format
and phone. Edith uses whatever works best to build the relationships and
community she documents. Referring to the Zine she says, “The book travels
well . . . and this is important. It’s about maximum visibility for my subjects.

Anna Miles Gallery
10/30 Upper Queen St, Auckland 1010
PO Box 68-000, Newton, Auckland 1145
Telephone: 09 368 5792
Mobile: 021 471047