Mickey Smith: Cultivate it as you will

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Mickey Smith: SOUTH, 2015. Installation view. Image: courtesy Te Tuhi

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SOUTH, 2015 by Mickey Smith. HD video (video still). Image: courtesy Te Tuhi

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Mickey Smith: SOUTH, 2015. Video still. Image: courtesy Te Tuhi

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Te Tuhi gallery presents Mickey Smith’s Cultivate it as you will [Carnegie’s New Zealand 1902-2015] exhibition. The exhibition brings together an extensive body of video documentation and contextual materials that completes Smith’s year-long research of New Zealand’s Carnegie libraries.

Between 1886-1917 Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie founded a philanthropic mission that established over 2,500 public library buildings throughout the English-speaking world. His charitable enterprise claimed to be an act of ‘hands-off giving’, however his generosity came with conditions and violent riots occurred in his steel mills.

Smith journeyed around New Zealand investigating the 12 remaining Carnegie libraries in places such as Balclutha, Onehunga and Westport. Smith’s thoughtfully-composed and introspective videos document the current state of the remaining Carnegie library buildings and the people who use them. The exhibition provides a contemplative reflection of one man’s legacy and the communities that originally helped fulfil his vision.

Mickey Smith is a conceptual artist and photographer. Her practice has been engaged with a longstanding enquiry into libraries, books and archives and she has exhibited throughout the United States, China, Russia and New Zealand.

Te Tuhi gallery is open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and Saturday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm. Admission is free.