Title Description Image Year

Non-standard Measures

In Non-standard Measures, members of The Observatory Project use blank tape measures to mark out metric and imperial units of length. In 2023 we visited public standard measures installed in Paris and London in the 18th century. Marking out by hand our own metres, yards, feet, and inches onto blank tape measures, we playfully push against notions of accuracy and standardisation – putting the metre to measure. Recording the street address of the public standard onto the tape, our measurements speak to local systems of measurement rather than any global standard.

2024

Document Scales

MATERIALS LIST, "blue rock" lino flooring (10x2m, partially unrolled), powered speakers and stands (grey), foolscap filing boxes IMPACT (cardboard yellow unfolded and stacked), foolscap filing box nets (aluminium, acrylic, lead), replica cabochon sizing guide (clear acrylic, from memory), extension cord (orange), pallet racking (steel, orange beams, green uprights), concrete removed from Enjoy Gallery floor (front room), document IN tray (grey, two levels), lead sheets (cut to foolscap folio 8x13"), half-room lights, photographic darkroom contact print glass (finger prints), aluminium sheet (orange, pen marks), cube and other "NOT-ROCK" objects found at Sulphur Beach, Tāmaki Makaurau (oyster shell, concrete), black glass (plaster drip), shadow aligning with video (at times), acrylic shelves, foam (green, circle), steel rod, counterweight, motor (clockwise rotation), oscillations and counter oscillations produced by the interaction of rotating steel rod and extension cord, quake wax, speaker wire, extension cords (black), Neues Museum Slides (digital video 4:05mins, 2019) ... [read more]

2022

Equinox_1:03PM NZST_23-9-22

Equinox_1:03PM NZST_23-9-22 23rd September - 8th October ST PAUL St Gallery Equinox event 1:03pm (NZST) 23rd September Opened 5pm 23rd September During the Equinox, the plane of Earth's equator passes through the geometric centre of the Sun's disk. In this celestial alignment, the Earth's poles tilt neither toward nor away from the Sun. On the equator, the sun rises exactly due east and sets exactly due west. Only on the Equinox is a 12 hour day and a 12 hour night shared everywhere on Earth. Observing the Equinox is a call to (re)turn one's attention to the exactness of the present and offers a duty to observe our present condition. This exhibition continues a series of conversations that were held during the northward and southward Equinoxes of 2021 and 2022. Participants from all over the world met at these times to discuss notions of time and duration. This project was organised by Eamon Edmundson-Wells, Chris Braddock, and Ziggy Lever. [read more]

2022

SNAIL TIME II

PEWTER COCHLEARIA (SPOON)
TRAILER SPRING
SNAIL SHELLS
CONGHAM SNAIL RACING ARENA
WHITE CHIP ROCKS
BUNDLE OF STICKS
LEAVES (PURIRI)
4 X 3 MIRRORS + MOTORS
BROKEN POT (TERRACOTTA)
VARIOUS DETRITUS
LIGHT BULB (MELTED)
PLYWOOD (PINE)
HI FRAMING TIMBER
VARIOUS EPHEMERA AND PRINTED TENTS
SWEET PEA SEEDLINGS (TRAY)
4 X 3 DIGITAL VIDED PROJECTION:
– SNAIL ESCAPING THE MEASUREMENT, 16MM B/W FILM, 2:48 LOOP
– WEED PILE, HO DIGITAL VIDEO, 40:26 1609
COCHLEARIA MEASUREMENT
VIVARIUM FRESCO
SNAIL SHELL FILLED
ANOTHER SWEET PER SEEDLINGS TRAY
PEWTER SNAIL (GARDEN)
PEWTER SNAIL (SMALL)
PLANE OF INCIDENCE
RODNEY'S POEM
OYSTER MUSHROOMS
ANOTHER SWEET PEA SEEDLINGS TRAY
SNAIL FORUM DIGEST
EMPTY SHELLS AND SLIMY NECKS
HELIX DESERTORUM SNAIL WHO HIBERNATED IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM BETWEEN 1846-1850
REPLICA GIANT PINK SEA SNAIL FRAGMENT FROM DR DOLITTLE (1967)
CROSSWORD
SNAIL TIME PENCIL

2022

The Observatory Project: Time Scale

Scheduled between 2pm and 6pm on Sunday 1st August 2021, The Observatory Project conducted a public observation with equipment provided by the Generally Relative Acoustic Mass Sense Society (GRAMSS). Utilising the new Adaptable Sound Interferometry Equipment (A SINE), members of the observatory carried out an experiment seeking to not-measure the effect/affect/no-effect of mass on a field of elastic sound for a duration of 44 minutes and 21 seconds.

2021

Snail Time I

Collaboration with Lucy Meyle

Snail Time adopts the image of the snail to open up playful research into the related spaces of the library and the playground; and how symbols, images, and representations of time are circulated or concealed within them.

2021

Rambling

Collaboration with Xin Cheng, since 2014

Te Henga, Tāmaki Makaurau 2014
SH16, Tāmaki Makaurau 2015
Renton Rd, Tāmaki Makaurau 2015
Maori Bay to Muriwai, Tāmaki Makaurau 2016
Landscape Rd, Tāmaki Makaurau 2016
Topolò/Topolove, Grimacco 2017
Venezia, Veneto 2017
Sarawia Street, Tāmaki Makaurau 2017
SH20 tunnel, Tāmaki Makaurau 2017
Auckland Fish Market, Tāmaki Makaurau 2017
Elbe River, Hamburg 2018
Eilenau, Hamburg 2018
Rosebank Rd, Tāmaki Makaurau 2020
Olympic Park, Tāmaki Makaurau 2020
Te Tātua-a-Riukiuta, Tāmaki Makaurau 2020
Poynton Tce, Tāmaki Makaurau 2020

2020

The Observatory Project

The Observatory Project explores and adapts processes from art and science disciplines to frame collaborative and cooperative relationships.

Current Members:
Eamon Edmundson-Wells
Tim Natusch
Ziggy Lever

2018 -

Title (to be specified)

Plastic drop cloth (blue), 12" speakers, Sony Trinitron CRT monitor with the work Song (Fantasia) of (on Byrd's) Humpback Whale (Miserere Mihi), for Paine, Turnbull, W. Banks, 2016, 8mm B/W film, sound (20 mins loop), DVD player, slide projectors, B/W negative slide sequence, mounted speakers, speaker wire, perspex, sub-woofer, extension cords (black), extension cords (orange), audio cables, carpet (800m2) installed folded/unfolded/upside-down and un-fixed, three-screen video with the work A Round for Rocks and Stones, 2014, appropriated painting trolleys, gravitational wave data, various filters, oscillators, and audio modulation devices, raspberry pii with custom coding, infra-red sensor, optical sensor, paper, sound archive generated during the installation (with Eamon Edmundson-Wells).

2017

Looking Forwards and Backwards

Collaborative project with Lucy Meyle

Projected still image, motorised mirrors, timber. Image credit: S17-051a Tree Asters, Chatham Islands, 1924. H. D. Skinner photograph, Box-214-019. (Reproduced for this exhibition with permission from Hocken Collections, Uare Taoka o Hakena, University of Otago.); HD video projection, 08:44 duration; CD audio for headphones, 02:49 duration. Adapted text from "The Garden Planner" by Gardener Royal Ashley Stephenson (1981); CD audio for headphones, 10:25 duration; CD audio for headphones, 14:16 duration; short run publication, unnumbered.

2017

Crystallising Universe

9-24 September 2016

123 Commerce Street, Frankton, Hamilton

Wool carpet, motorised sculptures, amalgamated brick and pipe, slide projector, fan, speakers, spoken text, torch light, rain, orange extension cords, steel, lundia shelving

2016

Metre for Measure

27-29.10.16

Installation at ST Paul St Gallery 3

Vinyl Flooring, music stands, CRT monitors, glass panes, vibration mount speakers, studio monitors, light reflections mapped throughout the three days, metronome, audio and power cables, various documents, photographs, fake rocks, superimposed sounds

2016

WeakFORCE4

WeakForce4 Collaborating Artists: Bruce Barber (Canada), Benji Bradley (NZ), Liz Bird (NZ), Anthony Cribb (NZ), Paul Cullen (NZ), Eugene Hansen (NZ), Laresa Kosloff (AU), Lee Ihnbum (South Korea), Kim Morgan (Canada), Matthew Sansom (UK), Daniel von Sturmer (NZ/AU), Andy Thomson (UK/NZ), Layne Waerea (NZ), Suh Youngsun (South Korea), Deborah Rundle (NZ), Joseph Jowitt (NZ), Ziggy Lever (NZ) and others, including Darcell Apelu (NZ) and Cora-Allan Wickcliffe (NZ).

2013

Transforming Topographies

2013.07.02 - 2013.07.22

Auckland Art Gallery 5th AUCKLAND TRIENNIAL "The Lab" -Project 4

Tuesday 2 July - Sunday 21 July. A series of events; 21 days/ 80 participants/ 32 projects

2013

Floorboard Intervention

10 minute SD video projection, installed under a loose floorboard.

2011

© Copyright Ziggy Lever 2021