At Thresholds explores humanity’s place within the multispecies—a vibrant universe of lifeforms, including fungi, plants and animals.

In a time of ecological crisis, the artists in this exhibition consider how art might renew our awareness of living with our more-than-human cohabitants. They take a range of perspectives at the thresholds of other existences. Through imaginative visual languages, the artists evoke diverse, commingling ways of being, which help shape and sustain the planet we share. Their work destabilises our human-centred present, proposing that much can be learned from telling stories about life, as one amongst multitudes.

The exhibition asks us what it means to mediate between life forms and life forces, between worlds that are both enmeshed and in orbit, between relationships that are untranslatable, but richly and devastatingly consequential.

The artists span multiple generations and are all from Aotearoa. The exhibition brings together a mix of historical, recent and commissioned works. They employ a variety of mediums, including photography, video, painting, sculpture and installation.

At Thresholds is curated by Moya Lawson.

READ: Thinking Out Loud with Moya Lawson
On the development of 'At Thresholds' at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi

"Making art about other species seems less restrained than writing about them. The artists in At Thresholds are experimental with their practices, harnessing colour, shape, and material—the organic and the machine. They weave imaginative visual languages—unique in themselves—that are collectively curious, fantastic, and vivid. Their work offers the generative possibilities of trying to convey the unknowable worlds of their subjects. And, in doing so, they bring us closer to understanding our relationships with the world we share."