It is hard to know where art starts and reality stops at the latest sculpture exhibition at the Dunedin School of Art.
Figures from the past are revisiting the art school this week for a retrospective exhibition by alumni, ''The Material World: Sculpture at Dunedin School of Art 2002-2013''.
Exhibits include a cluster of broken bricks on the floor and an envelope of hair, stolen by one student from another, pinned to a wall.
A bicycle leaning against a wall is also part of the exhibition, while a broom leaning against another wall is not.
A five-minute video by Gemma Tweedie, Lie on Floor, Tape Head, shows the artist doing just that - taping her head to the floor.
A metal-spiked punching bag, called Jab, is suspended from a wall, near a gas mask attached to a pair of underpants, while a nest of inverted textile flamingos hangs from the ceiling.
Dunedin artist Liz Rowe was putting the finishing touches to her Wishing Well sculpture, created from 2000 bars of Sunlight soap this week.
''Water and place and space are part of my general themes and this is about New Zealand being clean and green,'' she said.
The exhibition, which runs until May 24, is a tribute to the 10 years sculpture lecturers Scott Eady and Michele Beevors have taught at the school.
''It feels very gratifying to see all these works by students who have studied here,'' Ms Beevors said on Tuesday.
''We put a call out last year for alumni to take part in the exhibition and we just left it [the subject matter] up to them.''
The exhibition includes a public symposium on contemporary sculpture from 9.30am until 4.30pm today at the Dunedin School of Art, in which alumni talk about how art has advanced their careers.
