It is Dunedin's only truly underground art gallery.
The Blue Oyster Art Project Space shows art that other galleries don't dare.
Nigel Benson meets director Jaenine Parkinson.
I'll never forget the first time I walked into the Blue Oyster.
Turning the corner, we crossed an infrared beam, which activated a deconstructed washing machine with tin cans attached to the agitator.
The contraption exploded into life, shaking the cans around in a din to wake the dead.
Ten minutes later, after peeling myself off the ceiling, it was difficult not to be impressed.
You should expect the unexpected at the Blue Oyster.
The gallery has been the home of experimental art in Otago since it was established in 1999.
It was designed to provide a space which encouraged experimental and innovative art projects, free from commercial constraints.
"It started off as a tight-knit group of friends who paid the rent themselves. Everything came out of their own pockets and hard work. They really broke the ground," director Jaenine Parkinson says.
"It's since evolved from an artist-run space and become more professional. We're an in-between zone for artists starting their careers out of polytech and established artists wanting to try something different. We're like a laboratory for artistic experimentation."
The Blue Oyster experiment celebrates 10 years in September.
In that time, it has held 260 exhibitions involving more than 600 artists.
The gallery is part of a national network of experimental art spaces which includes Artspace (Auckland), Enjoy (Wellington) and The Physics Room (Christchurch).
The gallery was incubated in lower High St in 1999, before moving to Moray Pl in 2005, where a blue neon sign has recently been installed in the alleyway above the gallery entrance.
Parkinson (27), who has an MA (Hons), took over the helm in January from Michelle Armistead.
"The opportunity and scope here is amazing," she says. "The installation times are the really fun part. Every four weeks there's a new show, so it's an intense turnaround. You're often putting a pen down and pulling on overalls to do some gibstopping."
Parkinson estimates 10 to 15 people a day wander down the brick alleyway into the gallery, which is administered by the Blue Oyster Project Trust, a body comprising artists, curators and other creative professionals.
The trust members are Jo Campbell, Peter Gorman, Maddie Grady, Bernard Hamlin, Aroha Novak, Max Oettli, Anya Sinclair and Dr Erika Wolf.
The gallery has close relationships with the Otago Polytechnic School of Art and University of Otago art history and theory department.
"We're often the first major opportunity for students from these institutions to work with a professional gallery," Parkinson says.
The annual "Grad Show" features art by graduates of the Otago Polytechnic School of Art.
The gallery has an annual budget of just under $100,000, funded mainly by Creative New Zealand.
"Last year, we were so grateful to receive the full $87,000 requested from CNZ," Parkinson says.
"However, the funding is in jeopardy for next year as Creative NZ have got a new scheme which requires people who get substantial funding to increase investment from the community and businesses.
"We rely on the generosity of gaming and community trusts to make any ground. We recently got funding for a second-hand computer from the Bendigo Valley, while the gallery's new neon sign is sponsored by Pub Charity."
The BendigoValley Foundation gave the gallery $700 this year and $400 last year, says trust office manager Heather Falconer.
Last week, the gallery put in a submission to the Dunedin City Council seeking $10,000 to pay for more administration hours.
Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin believes the gallery plays an important part in the city's art community.
"It's added another dimension to the Dunedin art world over the 10 years it's been here," he said.
Dunedin art historian and critic Peter Entwisle says the gallery is a vital cog in the local art scene.
"A city with Dunedin's aspirations in the arts needs such a venue," he said.
- The next Blue Oyster exhibitions are Melbourne artist Emma Morgan's "Aural Hysteric", and "Onward" by Wellington-based artist Kate Boocock.
"Aural Hysteric" examines family feuds and "Onward" is a sculpture of Dunedin in the future.
The exhibitions open at 5.30pm on Tuesday and run until June 13.
- The Blue Oyster Project Art Space is open in Moray Pl, opposite the Rialto Cinema, from 11am-5pm, Tuesday to Friday, and from 11am-3pm on Saturdays.
