This suite of works was first exhibited in Affirmation Dungeon at Gambia Castle, Auckland in 2007 – the year before Arps’ Walter’s Prize nominated exhibition Explaining Things.

At the time, the artist-run initiative Gambia Castle formed an important part of Auckland’s gallery scene for a generation of artists, and Affirmation Dungeon was a key moment for Arps.

The title of that exhibition went on to become the title of Arps first monograph Affirmation Dungeon, co-published by Clouds and Michael Lett in 2011. In this publication art critic Jon Bywater notes that “In Arps’ titles, ‘motivation’ and ‘affirmation’ are concepts signed by the Californian-style self-help movement and its pop psychology. The term ‘dungeon’ invokes sado-masochist playful discipline, a premises where one might be restrained and forcibly affirmed, by one’s own arrangement.”