A focused selection of photographs

Produced between 1997 and 2022 by Tāmaki Makaurau based artist Greta Anderson. 
The exhibition premise anticipated the launch of a new monographic publication of the same title, designed by exhibition curator New Public. 
For over 20 years, Anderson has been capturing dramatic scenes in films and photographs that quietly reference intensely personal narratives. 
There Is Nowhere to Go, There Is Nothing to Do presents Anderson’s work through a range of formats including an eponymous publication, a documentary video, and a photo installation, speaking more broadly to the varied ways photographic material is shared and engaged. 

Reflecting on her work, Anderson shares:
“After my parents’ marriage breakup, my mother took nine-year-old me, my brother and my sister to live on a West Auckland commune situated near a national airbase.
The juxtaposition of renovated chicken dormitories and farmhouses that we lived in with the airbase’s well-maintained State houses made the differences in our lifestyles very apparent.
We had one tiny shelf each where we arranged our small collection of belongings.
I remember a National Geographic yellow plastic hair brush, a wooden snapper with a fin broken off, and a jar of creatures from a Piha rockpool—special things. We looked after animals, climbed trees at dusk, and watched ‘The Tomorrow People’.
The adults used blankets and cushions for unusual things they called ‘therapy’. We called them ‘The Adults’ and we were ‘The Kids’—two tribes.
We, The Kids used to roll our eyeballs when they explored their ‘inner
child’. The title of this exhibition and partner book is a quote from Ram Dass, who helped
popularise Eastern spirituality.” (2023)