Innocents Abroad - Touring the Pacific through a colonial lens is an extraordinary and unique installation of 67 framed photographic prints and seven large photographic murals of images taken in 1884 by Alfred Burton of the noted Dunedin photography firm Burton Bros.
Alfred Burton was a passenger on the Union Steam Ship Company’s SS Wairarapa on its first winter tourist excursion into the Pacific. The exhibition follows the Wairarapa’s journey from Auckland through the islands of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.
The interpretation has been developed with three unique voices. There are extracts from Alfred Burton’s diary of the trip and newspaper comments which give the view of the times, the “colonial lens”. The curatorial commentary gives context to the happenings of the time, the photographer and the images, while contemporary responses to the images are expressed by leading Pacific scholars and writers from each of the nations visited. All exhibition labels and graphics are supplied.
This is a high quality exhibition of intriguing images with an imaginative and insightful interpretation. It will appeal to visitors interested in social history, the South Pacific, maritime history, and photography.
The exhibition requires 45 linear metres of wall space and is available to tour from June 2006.
Touring Schedule
Hawkes Bay Exhibition Centre, Hastings
11 August – 24 September, 2006
Puke Ariki, New Plymouth
30 November – 28 January, 2007
Te Manawa Museum, Palmerston North
8 February - 8 April 2007
Rotorua Museum of Art & History, Rotorua
19 April - 17 June 2007
Hocken Library, University of Otago, Dunedin
29 June - 25 August 2007
Canterbury Museum, Christchurch
6 September - 4 November 2007
Millennium Public Art Gallery, Blenheim
7 December 2007 - 1 February 2008
The exhibition has been developed by the Museum of Wellington City & Sea in partnership with Te Papa and with the support of ImageLab
