Megan Dunn: The Mermaid Chronicles 2.0

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The Mermaid Chronicles 2.0 explores writer and curator Megan Dunn’s longstanding interest in mermaids, especially the world of professional mermaiding. For two years, Megan interviewed and met some of the world’s best professional mermaids, including Mermaid Hannah (as seen on recent Netflix documentary Merfolk), MeduSirena who runs the only underwater burlesque show in the United States at The Wreck Bar, and Mermaid Linden, who edutains kids with her YouTube series ‘Mermaid Minute’, and sells her own range of branded monofins.

The Mermaid Chronicles 2.0 is the next episode of Megan’s mer-odyssey to chart the significance of the mermaid across art and contemporary culture. The exhibition includes retro artefacts, painting, sculpture, underwater photographs, and videos by artists, photographers and professional mermaids. It is the only exhibition where you can see a mermaid tail sprouting out of an industrial washing machine. Made by New York based artist Olivia Erlanger, a version of this uncanny sculpture originally went viral on Instagram.

The Mermaid Chronicles was first presented at the Adam Art Gallery Te Pataka Toi in Wellington. The new Tauranga edition of the show includes a special focus on the art and poetry of the Māori Mermaid (Jessica Thompson Carr), based right here in Ōtepoti Dunedin.

The Mermaid Chronicles 2.0 shellabrates the mermaid as a figure of high and low culture, an enduring archetype and as an entrepreneurial job! In the era of climate change, the mermaid is rising…

Artists: Olivia Erlanger, Julia Holden, Suzanne Husky, Maori Mermaid, Brett Stanley.

Mermaids: Merman Jax, Hannah Mermaid, Mermaid Linden, MeduSirena.

Image: OliviaErlanger, Pergusa (Gris), detail, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and DM Office, New York. Installation view: Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery, Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington. Photo: Ted Whitaker.