HETEROGLOSSIA 2

HETEROGLOSSIA 2 is the first solo exhibition by Lyttelton-based artist Emma Wallbanks at Jonathan Smart Gallery, following her 2020 show at CoCA. The exhibition centres on trauma as a thematic anchor, presenting work made from historical vernacular slides and photographs arranged in non-linear ways. Six medium-format framed photographs occupy the front gallery—some dual images combining black and white photographs with colour slides, others featuring handwritten text by the artist. A series of ten smaller, more intimate works hang nearby, made of hand-printed black and white photographs with slides, viewed through narrow windows cut into black mats. These lead to the back gallery, where a super 8mm video plays on a curved screen. Wallbanks transforms difficult and discarded content into what she describes as "something imperfectly beautiful," layering histories and languages to shift away from linear narrative toward abstract emotion and empathy.