Linda Gair – Conflict of Interest

3 – 22 December 2021

Street Front Gallery

Art is a great platform for political comment!

In this body of work Linda Gair has sought to express some of her opinions regarding several topical issues we are facing today in Aotearoa New Zealand, particularly in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

In Gair’s view, the Unitary Plan has allowed builds of uniform, ‘low-rise affordable’ housing, which run the risk of freezing their underwhelming architecture in the aesthetic of the early 2020’s. The many new occupants of these low-rise developments will increase traffic congestion to a point that our roads cannot hope to cope with, since they have long ceased to cope. As a Bayswater resident, Gair is all too familiar with the growth pains of urban development – with only one road providing access to the peninsula, new development without equal investment in infrastructure has had, and will continue to have a notable impact on daily life.

Government and City Councils are still talking about how to get cars off the roads and people onto public transport. Will there be a second Harbour Bridge or tunnel crossing? When will the monumentally expensive feasibility studies get these long-awaited plans into action? It seems that myopic band-aids continue to be patched over these ever-growing issues. Moreover, Gair argues that the Council’s dogged commitment to the improvement of Auckland’s CBD has become the death knell to scores of businesses and a ‘mammoth moving road cone maze’ for the commuter. Surely public duty is to serve the public interest, and is therefore tied to the collective interest of the entire community.

This exhibition makes commentary around these local development qualms, as well as wider political forces such as climate change inaction and the devastating impact of COVID-19.

Art is a great platform for political comment!

About the artist:

Linda Gair is a North Shore-based artist and graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts, having majored in Photography in 1977. She turned to painting 25 years later as digital photography became the norm. The ‘alchemy’ of mixing paint, as well as its processes and application, served to match her fascination with the chemistry of darkroom photographic processing.

Linda’s new body of work. ‘Conflict of Interest’, makes personal political comment around some of the larger public interest issues facing Aotearoa New Zealand today.

Gair’s practice is influence by her upbringing in a political household – her father, George Gair, served as the North Shore Electorate’s local politician for 24 years 1966 – 1990. He later served as Mayor of North Shore City, before it became part of Auckland’s Super City! Gair currently exhibits with Railway Street Gallery, Railway St. Newmarket, Auckland, and has had solo and group exhibitions at The Depot Artspace over the years.