Student art exhibition puts partnership in the frame

Photo Caption: A new CoCA exhibition is an opportunity for Ara Institute of Canterbury and University of Canterbury Fine Arts students to collaborate and show their work together. Photo credit: Olivia Moore and Fletcher McClelland.  

Close to 40 students from Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury’s Ilam School of Fine Arts and Ara Institute of Canterbury are exhibiting their work at the central Christchurch gallery this month.

Whakawhanaungatanga 2025  is the second time that Ara and the University of Canterbury (UC) have collaborated in this way. The first Whakawhanaungatanga, in 2023, was one of the most visited exhibitions at CoCA that year. 

The name refers to the process of building and sustaining multi-layered, flexible and dynamic relationships, and the inaugural show came from a desire to foster creative collaboration between Ara and UC students.

UC Fine Arts Senior Lecturer Louise Palmer says the exhibition is an opportunity for students to share their work with each other, the community, and the art world.

Third-year UC painting student Vivien Silver-Hessey is exhibiting a ceramic piece called Can I be Your Favourite Mug? which she says explores themes of personhood and identity.

“It is a privilege to be able to exhibit as a young artist, especially while still studying, and at CoCA, one of Ōtautahi’s oldest galleries, which has such a wide audience even beyond the local arts community.”

Working with Ara students on the show has been fun and a great learning opportunity, Silver-Hessey says. “It’s exciting to make connections and talk to them about our work and theirs. Putting on this show has required good cooperation and communication, and by talking about our work, seeing and making connections between our practices, I think it’s the beginning of the networking that’s really important in our arts community.”

Third-year UC sculpture student Sophie Brown is exhibiting Between Steel and Soil, a series of digitally-altered video works exploring the abandoned or barren parts of Eastern Christchurch.

“I’m feeling a mix of both excitement and nerves for the exhibition. There's a sense of vulnerability that comes with putting your art into a public space.”

Brown says Whakawhanaungatanga is a vital step in her long-term goals. “It will allow me to experiment with how an audience interacts with a space, sound and material. By installing in an open and shared environment, I can investigate the immersivity of the work through sensory experience; something that’s integral to my practice.”

Emma Foung is showing work made in partnership with Jack Freeman, another third-year UC graphic design student. She says they wanted to explore New Zealand graphic design through the local signwriting industry. “Our work takes inspiration from what could be found outside of a corner dairy. It’s in the form of a sandwich board which we pasted a Coca-Cola sponsorship underneath and then a hand-painted a ‘milk’ sign painted over the top, inspired by local signwriters. 

“By kind of inverting the way that corporate sponsorship operates, we are trying to comment on how corporations assert their branding over what was a form of New Zealand graphic design.”

Ara Kaiako (teacher) Oliver Perkins says Whakawhanaungatanga is an opportunity for Ara ākonga (students) to make connections outside their immediate environment. “Hopefully these relationships become longer lasting, providing networks of support, opportunity, and friendship.”

• Whakawhanaungatanga 2025 is at CoCA gallery until 24 August. Some of the artists will give public talks about their work on Thursday 14 August and Friday 22 August at 3pm.