et al. | the fundamental practice
Exhibition detail
Encounter the fundamental practice for the first time since its 2005 debut at the Venice Biennale.
This installation brings together visual elements and computer-generated sound and movement to explore the power of fundamental group-thinking and belief systems.
As you step into the gallery, five metal units the artists call Autonomous Purification Units (APUs) move in unison, back and forth on mechanical tracks. As they move, computer-generated voices emerge from the units, sharing fragments of text taken from extremism in religion, politics, the occult and creative pursuits. The APUs’ intriguing signs and numbers hint at some shared purpose, as if they’re part of a group activity, factory, institution or even a new religion.
The combined sound elements create an orchestra of beliefs, sometimes overlapping and unifying, and sometimes falling apart. The result, which feels as relevant today as it did 20 years ago, is an experience that explores ideas about how belief systems, language, technology and authority shape social life.
Acquired for the Gallery’s collection in 2008, the fundamental practice is one of the most significant and debated works in recent New Zealand art history and now is your chance to see it for the first time in Aotearoa.
About the artists
The artists et al. are one of Aotearoa New Zealand’s most celebrated installation artists. The pseudonym et al., meaning ‘and others’, was formed in 2000 to account for a range of ongoing collaborators and remove the prominence of an individual subject author.
