Over the past two decades Tāmaki Makaurau-based artist Sonya Lacey has established a reputation for her diverse contemporary art practice. For this exhibition with Superpartner, on location at Peregrine Winery’s historic woolshed in Gibbston, Lacey pairs moving image works with new sculptures to continue her ongoing exploration of the competing dynamics of labour and rest.

Mattress (sleep-metal object) (2025) is a new sculpture produced specially for this presentation. For this piece, the most complex work in the sleep-metal series to date, Lacey worked with Gillies iron casting foundry in Ōamaru to create an experimental alloy out of iron, magnesium, copper and zinc. Lacey casts these metals in such a way that they bind but don’t entirely mix, so that traces of gold and reddish colourings appear on the edges of the pieces. For the artist, these metals not only connect to labour and industry but also to physiological processes; they are specifically chosen for their reputation as sleep aids. The resulting work comprises over 70 unique cast objects, with the perimeter of the sculpture matching the proportions of a queen size bed.

The graphic forms of Mattress (sleep-metal object) and Billow (sleep-metal object) (2025) are based on the hand-drawn animations in the video work Transition sequence for a dream or a fight (2) (2025), which is presented alongside the sculptures. To make this video, Lacey has used stop-frame animation to sequence etched copper plates. This work cites a visual device familiar from cinematic history; the cloud-like form used to imply an event — either a dream sequence or a fight scene — while simultaneously restricting its visibility. In fact, each plate in the work redraws, frame-by-frame, a particular animation sequence that was used as both the transition into a dream and a ‘dust-up’ involving two characters jostling for power or survival. For this presentation, Lacey has distributed the footage across three monitors spaced across the room. Seen this way we enter into a tussle of our own, as our eyes dart between the screens in an effort to reconstruct an image that won’t sit still long enough to be fully pieced together in our minds.

Underlining the themes of the exhibition, the historic Peregrine Winery woolshed that hosts the exhibition is distinguished by its materiality. Schist and rimu timbers layered with rusted corrugated roofing attest to its1858 origin as a place of labour and contribute a tangible sense of economic and material transformation, inviting a critical reappraisal of the fragile boundaries between industry, cultural memory, and somatic experience.

The artist and Superpartner express sincere gratitude to Peregrine. The exhibition is also realised in association with Robert Heald Gallery.

Sonya Lacey’s mixed-media installation, Weekend (2018-2021) was nominated for The Walters Prize 2021 and exhibited at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. She has undertaken art residencies with Bundanon Art Museum (NSW); Nanyang Technological University Centre for Contemporary Art (Singapore), Banff Art Centre (Canada), and the 2021 Dunedin Public Art Gallery’s Visiting Artist in Residence. Her recent exhibitions include No distance at all, Robert Heald Gallery; The Polyphonic Sea, Bundanon Art Museum, Australia; Several Degrees of Attention, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth; Totally Dark, Dunedin Public Art Gallery; Crossings, Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Wellington; and State of Motion 2020: Rushes of Time, Asian Film Archive, Singapore.

Sonya Lacey Lives and works in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Artist Website: sonyalacey.net