Exhibitions

• Exhibitions

• 1997
• CHILD BRIDE
• LIONEL BUDD
• SHELLEY SIMPSON
• AVA SEYMOUR
• TERRY URBAHN
• SURVEYING THE FIRST DECADE
• RAPID
• MANIACS OF DISAPPEARANCE
• BILLY APPLE
• THE BELIEVERS
• RONNIE VAN HOUT
• ANI O'NEILL
• GAVIN HIPKINS
• alt.nature

TERRY URBAHN

Urban Museum Reality Service

4 June - 23 June 1997

Closet archaeologist or armchair anthropologist? Terry Urbahn sifts through rubbish found on his doorstep. The starting point for this show was a collection of portable display cases made decades ago by the Dominion Museum Education Service, to be loaned to schools and libraries. Most cases dealt with the exotic lifestyles of "primitive" peoples; others addressed aspects of natural history.

These obsolete displays do not live up to current expectations of cultural sensitivity and aesthetic merit. Despite their retrograde politics and clumsy manner, or perhaps because of it, Urbahn found the displays charming. They brought back childhood memories of model-making; the aroma of Uhu glue and Humbrol modelling paint. Urbahn reworked the displays, responding to each case individually. For instance, into a case representing the lifestyle of "the Eskimo", featuring an igloo, fishing rods and dog-drawn sleds, Urbahn inserts a TV set and antenae, an AK47 and hand guns.

Hastily researching Inuit culture, Urbahn was pleased to discover that the men resolve disputes through "abuse slinging" contests. As an oblique comment on this, he adds the text of an argument between Mr Blonde and Mr White from Reservoir Dogs.

Perhaps inspired by Duchamp's Box in a Valise, Urbahn also completely cleaned out some of the cases to recreate some of his own previous installations in miniature. "With their quaint depictions of forbidden continents and natural sciences, these small travelling cases are flowers in the dustbin for Urbahn's anthropological anarchism", writes Robin Neate.