Ground/Work: The Art of Pauline Rhodes

Pauline Rhodes has pursued one of the most dedicated and innovative courses in New Zealand art.

But she is an artist who does not make permanent objects, who refuses to treat her images as final products, who works only in temporary modes and often outside the normal contexts for viewing.

Ground/Work: The Art of Pauline Rhodes documents her extraordinary body of work, from her earliest gallery project in 1977 to her major outdoor installation in Hagley Park, Christchurch, in 2000. It explores how Rhodes draws on and engages with materials, processes and places, in a profound, ongoing meditation on the nature of being, here and now.

Christina Barton provides insights into the artist’s working methods and locates her within the wider contexts of contemporary art both locally and internationally. Additional essays by ecologist and historian Geoff Park, and architectural theorist Sarah Treadwell, consider Rhodes in light of their respective disciplines.

Published in 2002 by Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery and the Victoria University Press
136 pages
215mm x 152mm
Softcover, with colour illustrations