AQI2020 is a new commission by New Zealand performance and installation artist, Alicia Frankovich. It derives from the conditions experienced during the Australian bush fire season of summer 2019—2020, which had an unprecedented effect on people, wildlife and land, emitting dangerous levels of smoke across Australia which were also seen in New Zealand. Stemming from the artist’s firsthand experience of the fires and their media reportage, AQI2020 takes the imagery and experience and re-imagines it through the tools of choreographic movement, exploring the limits of documentation and information in exchange for live experience.

Visitors will find a large clear-orange box in the Gallery’s North Atrium, inside of which can be observed a smokey scene with performers moving in choreographed gestures. The title references the ‘Air Quality Index’, an international system for monitoring pollutants in our atmosphere.