| Communications and Development |  |
Published by Communications and Development
A poignant photographic exhibition on show at the COCA Gallery invites audiences to reflect and engage in discussion about the anxieties and tough decisions of adolescence.
Ask Me to Dance, launched to coincide with the University of Canterbury's arts festival Platform, is both an exhibition and a new book by Maria Buhrkuhl, a University of Canterbury fine arts graduate and art teacher at St Margaret's College in Christchurch.
It is a brave, tender and honest account, in moving words and memorable images, of a young girl's experience with pregnancy and her struggle to make a decision about abortion.
Although a highly personal account, Buhrkuhl's narrative also deals with the broader anxieties of adolescence and young adulthood: the need to fit in and be liked, aspirations for the future, leaving home, searching for a sense of self and belonging.
Buhrkuhl says she hopes that in making public her personal story she can open a space for dialogue and reflection in which other young women might feel a sense of empowerment.
“It is an important story to share and often it is a story that does not get told, but hopefully many people will be able to relate to it with their own experiences or those of someone close to them.”
Ask Me to Dance forms part of the A Place in Time project, a University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts multi-media project that documents 21 st century Christchurch.
Project director Glenn Busch describes Ask Me to Dance as “a fantastically powerful” story.
“It is so tremendous for young women to have a book like this. It is not a pro- or anti-abortion book. It's about a person's intimate experience and looks at the sorts of decisions that are to be made, putting it all within a much larger context. It explores the anxieties of teenage years and a host of uncertainties that we all have at some point in our lives.”
The Ask Me to Dance exhibition – and an associated educational programme for school groups - will run at the COCA Gallery, 66 Gloucester St, Christchurch, until 15 June. Entry is free. The gallery is open Monday to Friday, 10am-5pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 12noon-4pm.
Maria's book Ask Me to Dance, published by Dinard Press, is available for purchase at the University Bookshop UBS, COCA Gallery and the University's College of Arts for $29.95.
More information about the Platform festival can be found at www.canterbury.ac.nz/platform.
For further information please contact:
Greg Latham
Festival Co-ordinator
College of Arts
University of Canterbury
Ph (03) 364 3451
gregory.latham@canterbury.ac.nz