Our shared urban environments are inhabited by a kind of chaotic and ephemeral harmony. Through our continuous relationships with infrastructure and discarded objects, Elise McDermott and Phoebe Laird re-contextualise objects/civic materials as carriers of memory, affect and social behaviour, forming a transient theatre of subliminal urban change in the after hours of public space and consumption.

Elise McDermott’s installations investigate the sediment and signage of shared popular environments. Focusing in on convenience, she questions our sentimentality, maintenance and function of consumer objects and spaces. Phoebe Laird’s sculpture captures the moment when the streetlights turn on or off. Her objects hinge on disruption and care, the holding of soft and hard, light and dark, homing.

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Elise McDermott is an artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (2022) and a Master of Fine Arts with First Class Honours (2025) from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design. Working across sculpture and installation, McDermott employs found materials and everyday objects to explore themes of nostalgia, sentimentality, value, and belonging. She was awarded the Whitecliffe Pathway Award in 2024 and presented her first solo exhibition at RM Gallery in 2026. Her work has been exhibited at Sanderson Gallery, Depot Gallery, and is included in the Arts House Trust collection.

Phoebe Laird is an artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, whose sculptural practice investigates cycles of growth and transformation, critiquing how material and place hold value. She grew up in Ōtautahi, Christchurch and graduated this year from Massey University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours (First Class, Valedictorian). Recent exhibitions include When the street widens (play_station, 2026) and Wear Time (Uindo95 Gallery, 2025) and the group shows Looking at the curb (The Engine Room, 2024), My Landlord Doesn’t Know I Have A Dog (1/107 Cuba Street, 2025), and Making Do (TwentySix Gallery 2026).