Several degrees of attention features four curatorial projects, each one departing from a work or group of works in the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Collection.

The Govett-Brewster has been collecting contemporary art for fifty two years. The Collection tells a story of artistic practice in Aotearoa as seen through the eyes of the people who have passed through this place: the values they lived by, their affinities, and the priorities they set for themselves and the institution in their own time. Like all institutional collections, this one contains gems and omissions, anomalies and loose ends, and stories that remain to be told.

Several degrees of attention proposes four ways into, and out of, the histories we live with. Rather than building toward a containable narrative of the collection as an entity, each gallery acts as a chapter, thinking closely with individual artists; the contexts they inhabited, the material and intellectual problems they worked through; and the stakes at play in approaching, and navigating, their practices now.

Contemporary artistic voices have been invited to open new points of entry into Aotearoa’s art histories, and pose relationships between artists across generations. Each project is distinct in its approach, and in its own way, thinks with artists to pose the question: how do we make sense of what we inherit?