With Fluidity artists' book

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: This work accompanies the audio walk project of the same name, and responds to the context of post-earthquake Christchurch, New Zealand. As with publications by Roni Horn ('Another Water' 2000, Steidl Verlag, Gottingen), the artists' book format is used to pose questions through a short text and through the juxtaposition of images made by the artists. Cottrell and Pratt worked with Alice Bush at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts to produce the book during their ten-day artist residency hosted by the Physics Room Gallery.

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The artists' book 'With Fluidity' consists of a short text, a sequence of ten images and fold-out poster. The cover text situates ?t?karo/Avon River as a confluence for stories, proposing both as formative in the city's identity. It poses a number of questions: "How do the river and the city choreograph each other? What turns is the city making?" and suggests that thinking of the city and river together creates new "narrative thresholds that function not through separation, but with fluidity."The inside pages are a visual essay consisting of five pairings of images merged with two layers of line work which weave over and under the images. The line works create optical effects similar to the Op Art painting of Bridget Riley. The images document the city in terms of flows of material. The book makes innovative connections between the city and river. It uses line work to create moiré, drawing connections between the visual (artists' book) and aural (audio walk).

RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: Physics Room Gallery is one of two top-ranked independent art spaces in New Zealand. It is funded by Creative New Zealand (the Arts Council of New Zealand), Christchurch City Council, Asia New Zealand Foundation and 10 other community and business partners. Director Melanie Oliver invited Cottrell and Pratt to do the residency. The gallery is governed by a 9-member board of trustees.