Beyond Boundaries
Chris Cunningham | Helen Manning | Angela Tier
13 NOV 2025 - 24 JAN 2026
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Three local Whanganui women artists, a painter, an installation artist and ceramicist have come together to present you with an exhibition that delves into relationships, seabirds and environmental tensions.
In the floor installation inspired by the material vocabulary of Eva Hesse and with a nod to her work Repetition III, Helen Manning has created Secondary. Using a 50-year-old domestic sewing machine, she has pushed it to its limits, building a thread mesh that holds both tension and collapse. This delicate balance also draws us to think about the relationship we have with our natural world. This slow, repetitive process becomes a way of drawing in space, creating individual circles of thread which connect to each other in a hit or miss way. Humankind can be viewed as weaving and threading our way through life, creating chaos, patterns, marks and trails. Manning works with feminine tools, unseen work, soft materials, giving form to quiet tactile labour. This is a practice of holding space — for vulnerability, for impermanence, for the peripheral. The temporary life of these sculptures will be reflected in the shifting, collapsing nature of the material over the duration of this exhibition. 
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Chris Cunningham’s figurative paintings speak to us gently, through the mind of seabirds. A wishbone for hope or a moon for harmony, she describes her paintings as ‘a collection of seabirds which celebrates their majesty, their place in our southern seas and their connection to the skies.’ Her gold frames symbolize the preciousness of the moment. A gift of nature. She has captured the birds’ soaring freedom and emotional bonds, through their loyalty and wonderment. Seabirds are deeply entwined with the elements, their flight and cries are responsive to the wind and ocean. Sometimes this is a challenge, sometimes a harmonious dance. Her paintings remind us that seabirds symbolize freedom and grace, aspiration and the power to overcome. Simply awesome birds.
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Angela Tier’s ceramics talk to us about our relationships through anthropomorphic seabirds and she wants to highlight hope as key to the uncertainty surrounding our relationships. After seeing the David Attenborough recent documentary Ocean, she was moved by his message of hope in the face of more challenging scenes where humans have destroyed coral reefs, hunted sea animals to near extinction and the sad reality of bycatch from fishing vessels. The message of hope is the light in the darkest hour, and with the recent passing of Jane Goodall, the message is in the forefront of our minds. In Our Hands Holds the Future, two anthropomorphic birds sit across from each other; one with a single egg, a chance for life to go on and her partner bird, with hands clasped in hope. The power lies not with them, but with an understanding that we are all a part of the outcome. Our actions affect life as we know it, now and in the future.
Together, the works in Beyond Boundaries offer a thought-provoking conversation about balance, vulnerability, and the capability for renewal. We encourage reflection, on how we inhabit and impact the world, as individuals, as communities, and as part of a shared ecosystem. This exhibition reminds us of nature’s resilience and a call to nurture the fragile threads that connect us all. There is hope for a better future.
UTOPIA GALLERY
Open Hours
Wed - Sat
11am -3pm
or by Arrangement
Wed - Sat
11am -3pm
or by Arrangement
Policy for exhibiting at UTOPIA
