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The Physics Room

@physicsroom

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A contemporary art space dedicated to developing and promoting contemporary art and critical discourse in Aotearoa New Zealand.

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187

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5 days ago

A new three-part sonic composition At Hilltop House by Ōtepoti-based Maxine Funke is playing in the gallery until 2 August, alongside our current exhibition Desert Rose. The three parts, macrocarpa march/at hilltop house/bay window, track between two ceiling-mounted speakers.

This composition will be broadcast on The Physics Room Contemporary Art Kōrero episode this coming Friday at 8pm on Plains FM. 🏹

The gallery is back to our usual hours this week after a short Matariki break. Ngā mihi o te tau hou!

Image 1: install detail of Maxine Funke, At Hilltop House, 2026. Photo by Bri Lawrence @b_lrl by @physicsroom

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12 days ago

Tyne Gordon's exhibition Desert Rose continues at The Physics Room this week.

Please note we will be closed on Friday 10-Sunday 12 July to celebrate Matariki – back to our usual hours next week. ✨✨✨

Image: Tyne Gordon, Untitled (windows), 2026. Oil on mild steel, three panels. Photo by Bri Lawrence. by @physicsroom

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18 days ago

A few library updates 🍀
Laurel Doody Library Supply 2025 deposit is in & ready for your research. A selection of titles are available to read in the gallery downstairs, or email us to arrange a time to view the full collection. Thank you Fiona and Tristan! @ldlibrarysupply 🪽

We’ve also updated the Library page on our website so you can now browse the live spreadsheet of all our library titles and see what’s new in. Ctrl + F to search your favourite artist, publisher, gallery etc.

All The Physics Room publications can be read in the gallery during our usual hours but we also encourage in-office library use by contacting us to arrange a time. We got these cute pink cards made to track borrowing and to ensure our collection is well looked after. 🍀🍀 by @physicsroom

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23 days ago

Documentation of Tyne Gordon's solo exhibition Desert Rose can now be viewed on our website. The exhibition is open until 2 August.

This show is accompanied by a three-part composition by Maxine Funke, At Hilltop House, which is installed between two speakers on the ceiling. This work can be listened to in the gallery until 2 August.

Photo credit: 1-2- Tyne Gordon, Untitled (panels), 3-4- Untitled (windows), 5-6- Untitled (pillows), 7- Maxine Funke, At Hilltop House. All works 2026. Photos by Bri Lawrence @b_lrl by @physicsroom

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a month ago

'The air, like a stone', Emma Fitts and Rosalind Nashashibi, designed by Lucy Meyle, The Physics Room, Ōtautahi Christchurch, 2023, folio intended to hold referenced texts, 9x12 ⅝”

The occasion was an exhibition of the same name, by artists Emma Fitts and Rosalind Nashashibi, at The Physics Room in 2023.
https://physicsroom.org.nz/exhibitions/the-air-like-a-stone

What was the process?
During this exhibition we hosted an evening reading event where we each (Emma, Rosalind and Abby, the curator) invited friends and past collaborators to nominate a short published text suitable for reading aloud, along themes related to Emma and Rosalind's exhibition: alternate temporalities, weather and astronomy, alchemies and omens, and bodies. All the texts were printed out for the live event, and attendees were invited to choose one to read, or to just sit and listen to others reading aloud. We decided to make this publication as a record of that event, a reference list of the contributed texts and their contributors, and as an envelope or folder where one might store materials for reading later. It was also a way of acknowledging the many—and often geographically distant—people and conversations that scaffold the artists' respective practices, and an invitation to future readers.

How did you come to produce (design, print, bind) the publication like you did?
The folded envelope/sleeve form and metal fixing came from Emma, proposed as a simple, portable way of recording and holding (the bibliographic notes and the name of the person who put that text forward), and for additional light materials. We asked designer Lucy Meyle to work on the graphic design, as someone who has worked frequently with alternative print formats in her practice as a designer and as an artist, and Lucy also introduced the glyph elements that inform the pattern on the exterior. We had it offset printed locally, a limited run of 150, at Spectrum Print in Ōtautahi Christchurch, as we wanted to be able to handle and choose the paper. And it was folded at the gallery. - Abby, Jane and Emma by @physicsroom

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a month ago

Desert Rose by Tyne Gordon continues at The Physics Room until 2 August, accompanied by Maxine Funke’s composition At Hilltop House.

“Site visits by the artist to Ōtepoti and nearby townships established as colonial settlements during the Victorian era built up an index of floral, spatial and literary imagery revealed in the suite of paintings in Desert Rose.”

Image: Tyne Gordon, Untitled (pattern) (detail), 2026. Oil on mild steel. by @physicsroom

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a month ago

We are excited to announce the recipients of the 2026 Whakamanu Exchange Residency are 𝗔𝗯𝗶𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗛𝗮𝘂
and 𝗦𝗸𝘆𝗲 𝗟𝘂𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗻-𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘆.

Abigail will be travelling from Ōtautahi to Tāmaki Makaurau to be hosted by Puku, Samoa House Library and Felixe Laing.

Skye will be travelling from Tāmaki Makaurau to Ōtautahi to be hosted by The Physics Room and The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora.

We’re looking forward to hosting them soon. Look out for further announcements later this year about the public events they’ll host during their visits.

Abigail Hau (Ngātiwai, Ngāpuhi) is an analogue photographer born and based in Ōtautahi. Their photography is shaped by the principles of kaitiakitanga, and rooted in connection to whenua, and to people. Abi works exclusively with analogue processes, including photography, moving image, and darkroom printing. Their practice is slow, embodied, and relational, focussing on decolonising the lens. Through this, they honour their connection to the whenua, to whakapapa, and to the mauri they capture. Abi’s recent bodies of work include Te Karaka ki te Raki (2025), and Fast Track: Raupatu, currently exhibiting at Te Whare Tāpere in Ōtautahi.

Skye (Whakatōhea, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, & Pākehā) is an early-career artist, writer, and editor based in Tāmaki Makaurau, raised in Tauranga Moana. Working across moving image, sculpture, and sound, their practice explores climate change, urban infrastructure, site-responsive approaches, and Indigenous futurisms. They are particularly interested in collaboration and conversations around wai, asking how we might shift our relationship with this living element. Alongside their artistic practice, Skye’s interest in interdisciplinary knowledge is deepened through their work as a university notetaker for classes such as architecture, engineering, law, and biodiversity. Currently, they are the Arts, Culture & Te Ao Māori Editor for AUT’S Debate Magazine. They also work under the name Uku Rangi as part of their ongoing ceramic practice. by @physicsroom

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a month ago

Attention Studies no. 3 (May 2026) has arrived in the gallery! 🧶🧶 Pick up your copy for free or read the pdf online. Copies will be with our friends @samoahouselibrary @blueoysterdunedin @enjoycontemporary soon 🪽

This issue features contributions from Tessa Boraston, Josiah Morgan, Micheal McCabe, Sophie Bannan, Sian Alexia, Nick Harte, Ella Sage, Paige Walker, Julieanna Preston, Meg Doughty, Cindy Zeiher, Millie Dunstall, Sorawit Songsataya, Java Bentley, Steven Junil Park, Hamish Win, Cherry Mitchell and Millie Godfery.

Tune into our @plains.media broadcast this Friday at 8pm to listen to writers Sophie Bannan, Millie Dunstall, Orissa Keane and Jane Wallace read their texts from previous issues.

So grateful to @copyrightlicensingnz for supporting this kaupapa and @coffee_supreme keeping us going ☕️ by @physicsroom

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a month ago

Desert Rose is now open! Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate on Friday night and to our sponsors @threeboysbrewery @thecraterrim @signtech_nz for helping us to deliver this exhibition.

Desert Rose, a solo exhibition by Tyne Gordon, and Maxine Funke’s composition At Hilltop House are on until 2 August. by @physicsroom

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a month ago

Opening this Friday 12 June!

Desert Rose, a solo exhibition by Tyne Gordon
& At Hilltop House, a sonic composition by Maxine Funke 🥀🥚

Join us for the mihi whakatau and opening at 5.30pm and enjoy a drink to celebrate these new works. All welcome!

Image: research image for Desert Rose. by @physicsroom

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2 months ago

Opening Friday 12 June at 5.30pm,
Tyne Gordon: Desert Rose

Please join us for the mihi whakatau and opening celebration – all welcome, no RSVP required. 🥀

Desert Rose is a solo exhibition by Tyne Gordon that has developed from research into disused municipal buildings. Through patterns, objects and narratives contained in sites like racecourses and hospitals, Gordon produces new surfaces that reveal the social values embedded in such places. Following architectural and material cues, Desert Rose alters the gallery as speculation on the psychic afterlife of civic infrastructure.

This exhibition will be accompanied by a new three-part sonic composition by Maxine Funke, At Hilltop House.

Image: Research image for Desert Rose, Hocken Collections - Uare Taoka o Hākena MS-3821/3537 by @physicsroom

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2 months ago