On the outside

Fiona Amundsen has been intensively creating new work, and her latest exhibition The First City in History is currently on now at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. The latest body of work was created in Hiroshima, the first city in the world to be subjected to nuclear warfare. Her series investigates with photographs how public spaces reflect the changing political, social and historical values that are attributed to them. You can see the series here, as well as her first series Miracle on the Han River shot in Seoul. These two series are part of a planned trilogy.

Amundsen works included in Sightseeing are from her Wynyard Point series which were photographed here in Auckland. Like Garden Place they occured right at the beginning of this investigation into civic identity and public spaces, and how they might express or even repress social, cultural or historical values. Her seductive images aestheticise these complicated and often contested civic spaces with an air of detachment and candour.

Fiona Amundsen will be giving a talk about her work in the St Paul St Gallery space on 19 April, and her new work, The First City in History, will be coming to Auckland later this year.