John Daly-Peoples
et al. the fundamental practice
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Opening 8 August 2026.
Next month the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki will present et al.’s major installation “the fundamental practice” from 8 August 2026, marking the first time the work has been displayed in its entirety in Aotearoa New Zealand.
First exhibited as New Zealand’s official presentation at the 2005 Venice Biennale, the multisensory installation combines five moving ‘autonomous systems’ with computer-generated voices and sounds in a dystopian orchestra. The work forms a layered exploration of belief systems, extremism and its influence on individual freedom and collective life.
Tātaki Auckland Unlimited Director of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Dr Zara Stanhope says the exhibition provides visitors the opportunity to experience a major work in New Zealand contemporary art history. “the fundamental practice is one of the Gallery’s most significant large-scale collection works. While it became the focus of significant public debate when it was first presented at Venice, many New Zealanders have never had the opportunity to see the work in person, and experience the way it raises curiosity about the ways we understand the world that we live in.”
The artists et al. say the work raises questions about how we navigate the ongoing and intensifying stream of information and media that shapes our lives today: “Can we as humanity endeavor to establish a point of equanimity within the diverse and often oppositional streams of thought we encounter on a daily basis?” and in this landscape, “What truths provide fulfilling meanings to us as a global collective?”
Auckland Art Gallery Senior Curator, Global Contemporary Art Natasha Conland, who curated the work’s original presentation at the Venice Biennale, says the fundamental practice feels more relevant today than it did when it was first shown twenty years ago. New Zealand’s 2005 Venice Biennale presentation to be shown in Aotearoa for the first time
“The work resonates today in a world shaped by widening social divisions, rapidly changing technologies and increasingly fixed belief systems. In this context, the fundamental practice shares diverse perspectives and potential futures, set amongst outmoded machinery. Far from pessimistic, the experience of the work is in many ways speculative and poetic.”
Et al. is among Aotearoa New Zealand’s most celebrated installation artists. Winner of New Zealand’s leading contemporary art award, the 2004 Walters Prize, et al. was the focus of a major retrospective in Melbourne in 2024 and is one of only two New Zealand artists to have exhibited at Art Basel’s prestigious Art Unlimited. The pseudonym “et al.”, meaning “and others”, was adopted in 2000 to acknowledge a range of collaborators and to challenge conventional ideas of authorship and artistic identity.
A 2005 National Business Review of the et installation will be published shortly at http://www.nzartsreview.org
New Zealand Arts Review 