Overview
In 1958, Colin McCahon painted his great Northland panels. A year later Fisher and Paykel created the Kelvinator Foodarama 7. A fridge and a painting – both art? Both worthy of a place in our hearts, in our museum? We gave you the chance to decide. Parade put these objects beside each other and stirred up the debate, encouraged connections, tickled your fancy.
Parade was a bold, provocative, and sometimes shocking meeting-place, where the creative genius of New Zealanders across a dizzying variety of fields competed for our attention. Bruce Farr’s boat design skills alongside Ans Westra’s revelatory photographs of Māori life. On one level, a celebration of the things that have made us known in the world; on another, an inquiry into how we came to value certain objects over others; and how certain achievements from the past continued to play a vital role in our understanding of ourselves.
Airline crockery, folk art, fashions we’d like to forget, Goldie paintings. High culture met the stuff of everyday – the good, the bad, and the undecided – in a wonderful walk through New Zealand’s rich and quirky visual history.
As a special component of Parade, and to signal the sort of generous-minded conversation it sought to encourage in visitors, well-known (and not so well-known) New Zealanders chose ten favourite items from the exhibition. These featured along a Choice Trail. Some special objects belonging to each person were also displayed.
Informative and often humorous, Parade had a range of innovative and interactive devices to draw the visitor into the experience. Four Activity Stations attracted adults and children alike. These stations celebrated new ideas and new arrivals to New Zealand. Videos, pull-out drawers, and mechanical interactives engaged and delighted.
There were small treasures, jigsaws, sounds, and mystery touch-objects hidden in holes which started children thinking about how these things related to the exhibition. Children could also make simple versions of objects using clay or potato blocks – activities which could be further explored at the Children’s Discovery Centre, Inspiration Station, which was next door to Parade.