FUTUNA EXHIBITION - PUBLIC TALKS # 1 - JAMES CHARLTON AND TINA BARTON

FUTUNA CHAPEL EXHIBITION - FROM THE ARCHIVE: THE MAKING OF FUTUNA

PUBLIC TALKS

DESCRIPTION

The public talks presented in Futuna Chapel during the exhibition will inform and enhance the experience and comprehension of Futuna Chapel, a collaboration of the Chapel architect John Scott, Chapel artist Jim Allen and the building Brothers of Futuna.

This exhibition will, in words, drawings, images, sound and physical objects, explore the commissioning, architectural design, art works and the construction of this joint masterwork.

This work was produced when John Scott and Jim Allen were both in their mid-thirties and constructed by a dedicated team of similar aged voluntary building lay brothers.

PUBLIC TALKS

The exhibition will be brought to life with a series of public talks over the three Sundays of the exhibition. The first in the series of these talks will be presented by James Charlton and Tina Barton. Scroll down for more information on the presenters.

BOOKINGS ARE ESSENTIAL TO ATTEND THIS EVENT

The Futuna Trust is a completely voluntary organisation and all funds raised from the Futuna Exhibition Public Talks go towards the ongoing care, maintenance and operation of Futuna Chapel and also to support various initiatives undertaken by the Trust. This year the Trust continues, in accordance with its evolving tikanga. Booking for these talks is on a koha/donation basis. There is a free ticket type but if you would like to make a koha/donation to the Trust to support the Chapel, please register using the ticket types of $10, $ 15, $20 or $25. Ticketing and GST fees will be absorbed by the Trust.

SUNDAY 3RD NOVEMBER - 2:00PM - 2:45PM

Presenter # 1: James Charlton

https://jamescharlton.co.nz/

TITLE: The Psychedelic Intent of the Futuna Chapel

About The Talk

Picking up on Ron Brownson’s description of Jim Allen’s Futuna Chapel work as being gesamtkunstwerk -a “total work of art” (2020), Charlton will expand on the psychedelic intent of Allens art, discussed in the recently published chapter “Getting It Straight” that he co-authored with Allen (2024). Such intent he suggests not only makes “visible some connections to contemporary art practices” but also provides a context for how we might understand the Futuna Chapel work in relation to Allen’s Post-object signature performance work Contact (1974).

Brownson, R. (2020, November 1). Jim Allen The Christ Figure 1961 Futuna Chapel [Video].

Allen, J., & Charlton, J. (2024). Getting it straight [Print]. In C. Braddock (Ed.), Performance Art in Aotearoa New Zealand: An Anthology (pp. 55–72). Massey University Press.

Allen, J. (1974). Contact [Performance].

Dr James Charlton is a New Zealand based artist whose work covers a range of practices including object-based sculpture, stereo-lithography, installation, robotics, interactive screen-based and performance work. Indebted to the generation of Post-object artists before him, his process driven work centres on the phenomenological event of art while tending to shun issue driven thematic.

Immigrating to New Zealand from the UK in 1973, he gained his BFA from Auckland University in 1982. As a Fulbright recipient he completed his MFA at the State University of New York at Albany in 1986. Remaining in the United States for a further four years, he exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions throughout the USA. During this time, he lectured in sculpture at the University of New Hampshire, Monserrat College of Art and the State University of New York at Albany. From 1993 to 2023 he lectured in sculpture, post-material and interactive installation at AUT University. These topics parallel to his PhD on to digital materiality completed in 2017 with Plymouth University, UK. He continues to supervise overseas PhD students through the TransArt Institute, USA.

Recent art projects include: THROWN, (Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, 2020), Rebound, (KARST, Plymouth, UK, 2017), Catch|Bounce, (LJMU, Liverpool ,2017).

Recent publications include: Getting It Straight. With Jim Allen. (September 2024), Pocket-Calls: Point(s) of Contact between art Practice and Philosophy. Kaiak. 8. (2021), No More and Less: The Withdrawal of Speculation. MaHKUscript (2019),

SUNDAY 3RD NOVEMBER - 3:00PM - 3:45PM

Presenter # 2: Tina Barton

TITLE: Finding the Pre-History of Post-Object Art in Futuna Chapel

Christina Barton’s 1987 Master’s thesis was the first attempt to compile a history of post-object art in New Zealand, canvassing the work of 26 artists between 1969 and 1979, and defining this new art-historical category. Jim Allen was a key figure in this history and featured prominently in her original scholarship. Futuna Chapel predates this period but Christina will point out features of the decoration designed by Jim Allen and discuss them as important elements that presage the more ‘dematerialised’ practice Allen went on to develop whilst teaching at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland and after.

After 35 years working in public galleries and as an art historian, for Christina Barton’s last show as director of Wellington’s Adam Art Gallery, tidying up has become part of the art.

Work in Progress saw Barton working in the gallery itself, leading a live archiving project - sorting material from her office of 28 years to add to the collection of Te Herenga Waka Victoria University’s New Zealand Art Research & Study Centre.

After completing an MA in the history of post-object art in New Zealand in 1987, Barton’s career began at the Auckland Art Gallery’s research library. It’s a career that has afforded her a rare overview of changes in New Zealand contemporary art.

She became a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2021.

(photo Robert Cross)