FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 4 May 2018

The fate of an unrealised settlement at Cornwallis is the subject of Headforemost, a solo exhibition by Stephen Ellis that opens at Te Uru in Titirangi in May.

The exhibition specifically takes prompts from an event in 1841, when a small boat containing William Cornwallis Symonds and four others sank ‘headforemost’ in the Manukau Harbour. Symonds, the deputy to Governor William Hobson, had negotiated, but not yet completed, the purchase of land at Cornwallis through his private scheme, the Manukau Land Company. But he had oversold the land. In 1841, after 300 days at sea, a shipload of Scots arrived; to no town, no facilities and no land title.

“The exhibition uses the William Cornwallis Symonds story to find resonances between the migration and globalisation of our time, and the migration and colonisation of his”, says artist Stephen Ellis.

“My own ancestors were economic migrants from Scotland, Ireland and Northern England in the 1850s and 60s.”

Ellis, an Auckland-based artist who also draws sets and concept art for film, is renowned for his meticulous ballpoint pen drawings. The humbleness of the quotidian pen belies the level of detail, wealth of imagery and almost photographic realism that Ellis achieves in his drawings.

For Headforemost, Ellis presents three drawings, made specifically for Te Uru, and are based on the Manukua Harbour. The drawings combine references to 19^th Century Sublime paintings, of interest to the artist for their depiction of torrential nature, through to ships, dinghies, planes and other signs of contemporary arrival.

“The Manukau Harbour is an important setting for the gallery and the local landscape”, says Te Uru Director, Andrew Clifford. “The Harbour was a vital link for traffic and trade in the era of sea transport, but is often overlooked as a key historical gateway now that air and land transport dominate our daily movements.”

Visitors can also view models of the Cornwallis wharf and other objects that Ellis made specifically as references for his drawings.

Headforemost runs at Te Uru from 19 May to 5 August

Opening: Saturday 19 May, 4-6pm
Artist talk: Saturday 19 May, 3pm

Hours: 10am – 4.30pm daily
Address: 420 Titirangi Road, Titirangi, Auckland
Website: www.teuru.org.nz