“In geography, the antipodes of any place on Earth is its antipodal point – or the region on the Earth’s surface that is diametrically opposite to it. Two points that are antipodal to one another are connected by a straight line through the centre of the Earth.”
– Wikipedia
Maddie Leach’s new project Andalucía takes as its title the Spanish region that is antipodal to Auckland. In an attempt to locate the exact antipodean site of Te Tuhi’s sculpture courtyard in Pakuranga, Leach used the website digholes.com (part of the bored.com network) to discover that a hole in the courtyard would emerge in an olive grove in Cortijo del Granadal, east of Olvera, Andalucía.
The result is a 2-metre deep hole, a large pile of earth and a stock footage video clip of a luminous setting sun.
Maddie Leach is a Wellington-based artist and has an installation and site-specific practice that variously combines objects, images, sound and video. A number of her projects have employed the idea of performativity (the way in which the object has been created or is used) as an integral component of the gallery visitor’s relationship to art work. The process involved in developing and making her work is often of equal focus to the finished piece. In revealing the ‘work of the work’ Leach deliberately redirects attention on to the material itself in order to consider ideas of value, usefulness, uselessness, and possibility.
The artist wishes to thank the following companies for their support towards this project: ITT Flygt submersible pumps, Geotek Services Ltd, Brownies Drainage Ltd and AC Group Services Ltd.