BRUCE BARBER

Michael Lett is pleased to present Bruce Barber’s Mt Eden Crater Performance. This exhibition focuses on Barber’s elaborate 1973 performance work which took place in the now restricted-access crater of extinct volcano Maungawhau / Mt Eden. Central to the piece is the movement of the hooded 'blind-master' who is guided in a spiralling path in and out of the steep crater. Placed around the crater rim, percussionists and individuals representing the four disciplines of sculpture, cooking, medicine and anthropology deliver texts through megaphones. Barber’s detailed performance diagrams structure his insertion of social interactions and knowledge systems into nature.

Bruce Barber (b.1950, Auckland) is an artist, critical writer and educator currently based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. During the 1970’s Barber made a series of works contributing to the post object movement in New Zealand including a many outdoor performances. Barber’s substantial career as an interdisciplinary practitioner includes his Reading Rooms series, Squat Projects, as well as his theoretical writing and practice of Littoral art.