Can-Do Attitude

'She had an uncanny feeling she was repeating herself." Margaret Dawson at High Street Project, Christchurch.

Who knew the humble old tin can could look so good? In the hands of renowned Christchurch artist/photographer, Margaret Dawson, over 1,000 stripped-back cans have taken on a new life in Christchurch’s High Street Project. There’s something tranquil and serene about “She had an uncanny feeling she was repeating herself.” It’s like a silvery forest of bamboo – delicate, ethereal, willowy and filled with surprises……photographic and light surprises placed in the bottom of intermittent towers; and then, the biggest surprise of all, the sudden, attention-getting chaos of rattling, shaking, mobile cans being hurled around a re-jigged washing machine. Triggered by a movement sensor, the hurly-burly of sound and the almost robotic nature of the adapted washing machine is enough to have you tip-toeing around the gallery, always slightly on edge, never quite knowing what’s coming next. Margaret packs up this show on Saturday August 9 and heads south for its installation at Blue Oyster Gallery in Dunedin, where it will take on a whole new life. Just to keep things interesting, she’s given herself the exciting challenge of installing this same exhibition in a horizontal format.