Zac Langdon-Pole

A Quiver of Names

Artwork Detail

Zac Langdon-Pole’s sculptural works combine a range of eclectic materials – such as these ancient arrowheads, typewriters and a specimen cabinet – to create a contemporary equivalent of surrealist sculpture. As well as sparking our curiosity in these extraordinary material conjunctions, Langdon-Pole is interested in what they reveal about our human histories. Taking his cue from the material collections developed at the height of colonialism and Western imperialism, he shows how objects, once removed from their deeply cultural embedded histories, are made strange, ripe for re-imagining. For Langdon-Pole, these new sculptures engage a ‘poetry of looking’, which may help us to understand the disjunctions of empire.

– Natasha Conland, Senior Curator, Global Contemporary Art, 2023

Title
A Quiver of Names
Artist/creator
Zac Langdon-Pole
Production date
2022
Medium
wooden specimen cabinet drawers, Blickensderfer, Royal, and Underwood typewriters, keys replaced with mixed ancient arrowheads: Neolithic (c. 7000-1700 BCE); Ancient Greek (c. 1200 BCE - 600 AD); Roman (c. 753 BC - 1453 AD); Ottoman (c. 1400 - 1600 AD)
Dimensions
1550 x 485 x 425 mm
Credit line
Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, purchased 2022
Accession no
C2022/1/20/1
Copyright
Chartwell website permission granted
Department
New Zealand Art
Display status
Not on display

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