31/05/2026
When the street widens
Phoebe Laird
04.06.26 - 27.06.26
Opening Wednesday 3rd of June 5:30pm
In When the street widens, Laird stays with the trouble of urban change and civil progression in Pōneke, attending to the small acts of collision and distress that betray the city’s contested sites. Each sculpture here is
carefully assembled from a collection of gathered object-witnesses, debris taken from across the CBD and bound together with new purpose. Whether blown
off from bike lanes or carried off from construction sites, these objects have seen things, they wear the effects of a restless urban development. Under Laird’s care, these effects are made visible, and these objects form memorials to the incidental changes that (re)shape the city and, in turn, shape us.
The exhibition takes its title from a small but significant moment in the eighty year history of 233 Willis Street. In 1990, around fifty years after opening but twenty-nine years before play_station moved in, the building’s
owners removed a ground floor bay and showroom from its front facade, effectively reducing its presence on the street level space. Though little information is publicly available, the view commonly espoused is that this
was done in order to accommodate broader civic efforts to widen Willis Street for pedestrian use. Looking to this as a parable for the shifty line between
public space and private property, Laird broaches the question: what will remain in a city through constant, cyclical change? And what becomes of that
which goes amiss?
Phoebe Laird is an artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, whose sculptural practice investigates cycles of growth and transformation, critiquing how material and place hold value. She grew up in Ōtautahi, Christchurch and
recently graduated from Massey University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours (First Class). Recent exhibitions include Wear Time (Uindo95 Gallery,
2025) and the group shows Looking at the curb (The Engine Room, 2024) and My Landlord Doesn’t Know I Have A Dog (Level 1, 107 Cuba Street, 2025)
Poster design by Harris Wilson
Sponsored by Parrotdog beer
With support from Creative New Zealand
