Ship Nails &Tail Feathers is Akaroa Museum's summer exhibition. It was devised and lent by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū and Canterbury Museum, and includes some added treasures from the Akaroa Museum collection.
Ship Nails & Tail Feathers
This exhibition was originally created in partnership by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū and Canterbury Museum and presented at Christchurch Art Gallery earlier in 2023. This summer, at Akaroa, in a much more intimate space, the exhibition is recreated in a pared down form with a focus on its ecological and maritime themes, and contains some added treasures from the collection of Akaroa Museum.
This is the first time in over twelve years that an exhibition curated outside the museum has been brought in, and it is interesting to have some different curatorial voices and object choices in the museum gallery. Highlights include Pigeon Bay Creek by Nicholas Chevalier (1828-1902), a watercolour painting from 1867; an Edwardian specimen display case containing a pair of huia; a ration of pandanus paste wrapped in pandanus leaves and coconut sennit packaging from the Marshall Islands used for sustenance when sailing and traversing the Pacific Ocean, a telescope connected with the Peraki whaling settlement on Banks Peninsula, and a small bottle of whale oil.
Ship Nails & Tail Feathers is a rare opportunity to see treasures from the collections of Christchurch Art Gallery, Canterbury Museum and Akaroa Museum in a single location, and a fine example of sharing and collaboration between institutions. The exhibition is on for a limited time, closing in March 2024. Akaroa Museum is open 10:30am to 4:30 pm daily (closed Christmas day only).