et al

A couple of days ago I went to see

Michael Lett's new gallery space in Auckland.

Even though I knew that the opening

show was an exhibition of the famous

NZ art collective known as et al,

the one that exhibited at the Venice Biennale,

and I thought that I had a pretty good

idea of what to expect, this time I was

well and truly fooled.

I arrived by car, parked in the generous

parking spaces off Beaconsfield Street but was confused.

This can't be the right space I thought,

this is an empty space still under construction.

Screwed up newsprint, rusting metal

structures lying around, a roller door

semiclosed, this can't be it I thought.

It was only when a courier arrived and I asked

if they knew where Michael Lett's was that I

realised that my mind had been well and truly

stretched beyond its current limitations.

This was the show, but it was spilling out of

the spaces inside into the carpark.

What a rewarding experience.

Art that expands my thinking is the

kind of art that I like.