Mixed media artists and collaborators Melanie and Ahilapalapa Rands have evaluated proposals for Close to Home, a group show featuring work by art students from Auckland’s five tertiary institutions. The mother and daughter curating team say Close to Home will draw upon notions of identity and environment. “We wanted the show to be informed by these elements since they are both threads in our city’s complex social fabric.”

Social media will be used to promote Close to Home, and encourage feedback and additional works to be contributed. There is every indication that the pair will succeed in this given the successful use of social media by their family’s ecostore business. “Social media is a great way to get the word out, and a great tool for artists,” says Ahi. “We want to use it to get audiences involved and responding. We aim to get other artists and people outside Auckland, involved in Close to Home by contributing their works and responses. This will give the project a life of its own beyond the actual exhibition.”

"This is the sixth year the gallery has hosted the Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust show,” says Charlotte Huddleston, director and curator for ST PAUL St Gallery. “We recognise the value of providing a platform for emerging artists, and in the process, providing an exciting experience for audiences,” she says

Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust manager Christina Jeffery describes the collaboration with the AUT venue as a win for all those involved. “Visual arts audiences justly regard ST PAUL St Gallery as a premium space for cutting edge contemporary work. Tautai is delighted to enlist two artist-curators for Close to Home, so audiences will be able to see some of the most exciting contemporary work being produced by emerging artists in Aotearoa-New Zealand."