I remember when the City Gallery used to be the library. The music section used to be half underground and it was in these light catacombs where I donned headphones and discovered all sorts of wondrous sounds that never reached my ears on Palmy's radio stations.
It was there I first heard The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and John Lee Hooker. Upstairs I tripped over Carl Jung's Memories, Dreams and Reflections while looking for something completely different. The building has a pleasant history of delivering the unexpected.
It continued this trend as the City Gallery. No matter what was on at the gallery, a poor bum like me could always find something good to see for free. Easily navigable, the City Gallery didn't hide its treasures, unlike the Escher-like labyrinths of Te Papa.
So, after simply yonks sitting there wrapped up in renovations, the City Gallery is reopening this Sunday with a blast at high noon. The premiere exhibition for the reopening is the fascinating work of Yayoi Kusama. I first tripped over her trippy work back in the 90s with Peter Gabriel's immersive computer game Eve. Good score, City Gallery! (HT EotF)
3 comments:
You remember when it was the Library? That puts you in a certain age bracket.... i never knew it like that. But i am intrigued with your note that part of it was underground.
Does that mean there are still underground sections now? Are there basements in the City Gallery? If there are still catacombs: I had no idea.
What more can you tell about it?
Not a lot more, Maximus. The building was significantly altered when the new library was opened, so I'm not sure how much of an underground remains. You used to be able to see into the basement from out front with its long windows. That's how I remember it, anyway. I've been known to be an unreliable witness!
Of course - D'Oh! I just realised that of course there are no basements under there, it has the whole underground carpark thing going on under the whole of Civic Sq and presumably the Library and Gallery too.
But I am now wondering where their storage is...
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