With the inaugural Telecom Prospect 2001 exhibition lurking somewhere in its pre-history, Telecom Prospect 2004 charts an energetic progress in many directions beyond that point of origin. This second major survey exhibition of contemporary New Zealand art has some of the same energy, a few of the same artists, and a far bigger scope than its predecessor. Spanning four venues, Telecom Prospect 2004 presents an unprecedented array of art. It may well be the largest such art exhibition ever seen in this city. As well as taking over most of City Gallery Wellington, the exhibition fills the Adam Art Gallery at Victoria University, Maddie Leach's ice-rink project is at the Wellington campus of Massey University, and a striking component of moving image work is at the New Zealand Film Archive Mediaplex. We acknowledge and thank these three partner institutions for their collaborative role in significantly expanding this ambitious exhibition project.

Four years into the new millennium, some New Zealand artists are still moulding clay or applying oil to canvas while other are exploring materials as surprising and various as fluorescent stickers, clippings from National Geographic magazines, lap-top technology and an a floor-sized expanse of ice. As Lara Strongman did three years ago, City Gallery Wellington curator Emma Bugden has looked widely and hard, and across a number of media, to bring this project together.

Since the last Prospect exhibition at City Gallery Wellington, the social/political/personal world in which we live has become a darker place. Over two years into the 'war on terror', the meaning of words and experience are even more up for grabs than they ever were. The art here reflects a world where the meaning of words, objects and experiences have been destabilised. If there has been a further loss of innocence-just when we thought we had no innocence left to lose-there has also been a return to some fundamental ways of making art, of recording and meditating upon experience.

Many works in this exhibition explore personal experience while others track the uncertain march of events in the public arena. Flaubert's statement that 'what artists do cannot be called work' can be taken however you like, but it does open up the dialectic between work and play which has always been the essence of art. Seriousness and angst coexist in Telecom Prospect 2004 alongside some gleefully inventive works. There are even a few escapist fantasies. This year's Prospect exhibition has both light and shade.

Naturally, the exhibition was dependent upon the commitment from the artists, who all contributed generously. We thank you all for your collaboration, creativity and support. We are particularly honoured to include such senior artists as Don Driver, Ralph Hotere, Bill Culbert, Ian Scott, Dick Frizzell and Shona Rapira Davies in the energetic hub-bub. We acknowledge the richness their practice adds to this project.

We also give heartfelt thanks to the public institutions, artists, dealer galleries and private collectors who have generously made their artworks available for the exhibition.

As was the case with Telecom Prospect 2001, Telecom New Zealand, as Principal Corporate Benefactors of City Gallery Wellington Foundation, are Principal Sponsor of Telecom Prospect 2004. Their investment in the exhibition has also enabled us to present this innovative on-line catalogue publiation, as well as collaborating with artist Ronnie van Hout to realise his interactive artwork. Such inspired and visionary support is necessary for artists and galleries to make the most of new technologies and through them to reach new audiences.

We would like to thank the catalogue essayists Tobias Berger, Gwynneth Porter and Ian Wedde, as well as the catalogue viewpoint contributors.

We thank the Telecom Prospect 2004 Curatorial Advisory Panel for their support and contributions to the exhibition project.

We also acknowledge and thank Creative New Zealand for their investment and support of the public programme lectures and events for the exhibition.

Neil Pardington and his team at Eyework Design and Publication have continued their long association with City Gallery Wellington by sponsoring the Telecom Prospect 2004 brand design for the exhibition and we thank them for this creative support. We would also like to thank Alto, Montana Wines, Magnum Mac and Radio Active.

We are deeply appreciative of the major core funding support provided by Wellington City Council through Wellington Museums Trust, which helps cement Wellington's focus as a centre for arts and culture in New Zealand.

Finally, we thank curator Emma Bugden for her tenacity and skill, bringing together with such professionalism and flair such a demanding project. Like its predecessor, Telecom Prospect 2004 will, we have no doubt, be a catalyst for much discussion and argument as well as pleasure. This is as it should be. Curators see certain things, they pick up on certain movements in the culture. They step beyond the boundaries of what is accepted and familiar. A survey like this is, by definition, a brave venture. Emma has brought this project to fruition not only with incisive intelligence but also with generosity and with the artfulness necessary to shape any memorable presentation of new work.

Paula Savage
Director, City Gallery Wellington