Eclipse conflates Watson�s longstanding interest in cartography with notions of waste, excess, redundancy and disquiet.

As in one work, a china clown juggles tiny globes, so too the artist plays with ideas, tapping into increasing global concerns about environmental management and the potential for disruption. Alongside the clown and two new bronze globes, the exhibition includes unique photographs from the series Transient Global Amnesia, where scraps of decontextualised maps float mounted on aluminium in beautiful timber box frames.

The four giant globes on the four plinths outside Te Papa embody Watson's long-term investigation of the map and globe, not as a fixed signs, judged solely by geographic content, but as complex images under pressure. Wastage, brought into her new exhibition adds more pressure into this mix.

Ruth Watson completed her PhD at the Australian National University and is currently a senior lecturer at the Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland.