The New Honesty

The New Honesty is an exhibition that collects and incorporates a range of objects and visual cues related to the further investigation and assessment of the Retreat as orchestrated by the Wellington based artist g. bridle. Acquired and selected from a number of artists, the composite works find themselves specifically aligned in terms their conceptual strength, integrity and their pertinent relationships to an existing framework of practice.

Resting on the allusion-filled and illusory potential of the notion of the Retreat, The New Honesty is a collection itinerant in its origins and its methods of exhibition. Its composite parts have been collected over recent years and from a range of sources. All the contributors have led their own lives, and the collection therefore reflects the idiosyncrasies of their individual tastes and personal trajectories.

When the collection is exhibited, the selected space operates as a type of sanctuary where the individual components that reside under the umbrella of the Retreat merge to work in harmony. Cast in the likeness of a museological display, at The Physics Room The New Honesty seeks to present this collection in an evocative but approachable manner, a strategy that provides an essential part of its charm.

Employing the form of the exhibition itself—as both medium and conduit—The New Honesty’s various elements seek to provide a critique of specific object-relations as well as create the opportunity for gallery visitors to immerse themselves in the Retreat’s mysterious endeavour.

g. bridle graduated from Massey University, Wellington in 2004. The Retreat was last exhibited in Segregated Enlightenment: A Critique of the Retreat, City Gallery Wellington (2007).