Shift your perspective at Wellington's City Gallery this weekend. Te Huringa/Turning Points challenges audiences to re-think historical depictions of Maori by positioning their work alongside contemporary works by leading Maori artists. Denis O'Connor: What the Roof Dreamt echoes with memories and images of the past, while Contemporary Projects includes intriguing works by Eve Armstrong, Darryn George, Sarah Jane Parton and Areta Wilkinson.Shift your perspective at Wellington's City Gallery this weekend. Te Huringa/Turning Points challenges audiences to re-think historical depictions of Maori by positioning their work alongside contemporary works by leading Maori artists. Denis O'Connor: What the Roof Dreamt echoes with memories and images of the past, while Contemporary Projects includes intriguing works by Eve Armstrong, Darryn George, Sarah Jane Parton and Areta Wilkinson.By placing rarely seen historic works alongside contemporary pieces, Te Huringa/Turning Points demonstrates a defining movement in New Zealand art history; a shift from Pakeha artists depicting Maori people and culture to Maori artists representing themselves.

Ralph Hotere, Colin McCahon, Gordon Walters and Shane Cotton are just some of the great names that feature in this provocative exhibition from The Fletcher Trust art collection.

Featuring works that were created in both Cork, Ireland, and New Zealand, Denis O'Connor: What the Roof Dreamt explores O'Connor's Irish ancestral homeland while referencing the Auckland peninsula, where he was brought up, and Waiheke Island, where he now lives. O'Connor uses sculptural materials that are robust and evocative: Welsh roof slates and Pakistani onyx, granite, obsidian and crystal.

In Contemporary Projects, Areta Wilkinson's intricate, beautiful works evoke images of the past and ideas of transition and portability; Sarah Jane Parton parodies the everyday idealised images of perfection that surround us; Darryn George's abstract paintings are rich with Maori and Christian symbolism; and Eve Armstrong brings discarded, commonplace materials back into circulation with her sculptural stacks.

When: 11 August - 4 November 2007
Where: City Gallery Wellington
Admission: Free

9/8/07

Image: Tomika Te Mutu (1866), Major-General Sir Horatio Gordon Robley
Courtesy of The Fletcher Trust Collection