| JOHN LYALL | |
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| During the recent refurbishment of the Auckland Museum, Lyall photographed threatened or extinct local specimens captured within 19th century museum display technologies also on their way to extinction. A moa skeleton, wearing its label like a dog tag, is reflected repeatedly in the glass of a dismantled cabinet, as if its fate is to endlessly relive its own demise. There is a synergy of sadness here, a mirroring of condemned cultural and biotic forms. But from this melancholy terrain, Lyall salvages fleeting moments of vitality and enchantment. Ref: Nigel Clarks' essay "Infectious Rhythms" for the catalogue for "Bright Paradise", New Gallery, Auckland Art Gallery. 2001. Pages 27-28. |
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