The art of obsession is explored in an exhibition being staged in Dunedin this month.
"Museum of Obsessions" in the Blue Oyster Art Project Space features work by 14 artists responding to obsessional objects and repetitive techniques.
"Obsession is so fundamental to the practice of identifying ideas and output," curator Jodie Dalgleish said this week.
"But, how do you bring that process into the gallery? I thought it would be great if I could get together a whole group of artists who relate to creative obsession."
The works are as eclectic as they are obsessive.
A film by Ravensbourne artist and poet Claire Beynon shows bamboo boats being released under the Antarctic ice in 2008, while Angela Lyon loses her heart to Elvis Presley.
Port Chalmers artist and musician Michael Morley's work was made from hair he has cut off over the past 20 years and Dunedin artist Nigel Bunn's Frequency Modulated High Voltage Experimental Image Maker No.1 is an art machine constructed from obsolete audio parts.
"Obsession can be a word to identify something other than weird, strange and abnormal," Ms Dalgleish said.
"Swiss curator Harald Szeemann coined the term `a museum of obsessions' to describe a place in the mind that allows individuals, and not just artists, to create their own worlds.
He also talked about the intense energy of obsession.
"The term 'obsession' does suggest an off-kilter kind of balance, but I wanted to recast it so that it could be seen as generative and constructive as well and fundamental to artists' ideas and creative output."
Other experienced artists in the exhibition include Peter Wegner, Victoria McIntosh, Scott Flanagan, Ben Pearce, David Clegg, Jeff Henderson, Fiona Shaw, Alex Mackinnon and Darren Glass.
The exhibition runs until December 24.
