Heather Straka & Hannah Riley | Opening 6 Oct at 5

The Blue Oyster is pleased to present Heather Straka | Do Not Resuscitate and Hannah Riley | Still Occupants. With strong macabre overtones Straka and Riley explore the seductive and sometimes humorous possibilities of the abject. The exhibitions will open on Tuesday 6 October at 5:30pm and will close on Halloween.

In collaboration with fashion photographers and designers Karen Inderbitzen-Waller, Delphine Avril Planquell and Margo Regan, Heather Straka has developed a series of large format photographs, infused with her painterly and gothic style. Further extending her time spent exploring the Anatomy Museum of the Otago Medical School Straka makes reference to Rembrandt's The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp and her own archeology of the politics of contemporary New Zealand identity.

Working in a variety of media, Hannah Riley toys with the idea of transmuted boundary lines, both physical and social. From a chorus of decomposing rabbits who cavort across the wall, to the slow melting of a popsicle dripping sugary puddles from the clutches of a fur stole, Riley's subjects span a full spectrum - from morbid and mundane to amusing.