Teststrip was an artist run gallery that operated in Auckland, New Zealand from 1992 to 1997.
In late 1992 the artists Kirsty Cameron, Judy Darragh, Gail Haffern, Giovanni Intra, Denise Kum, Lucy Macdonald, Daniel Malone and Merylyn Tweedie formed the artist collective Teststrip.[1] The Teststrip Gallery was opened the same year on the second floor of 10 Vulcan Lane in Auckland’s CBD where Daniel Malone was living at the time. In mid 1994 the gallery relocated to the first floor of 454 Karangahape Road. The new space had two galleries upstairs and a shop window exhibition space at street level.[2] Writer and artist Stella Brennan described Teststrip as, “Sassy, careerist and self-aware, by its persistent charm Teststrip alerted others to the possible joys of running a gallery.”[3]
In 1992 and early 1993 exhibitions were largely confined to the Teststrip collective members, but soon other artists including Matthew Hyland and Simon Cumming both of who would have an ongoing connection with Teststrip events began to be included. The first exhibition was entitled Stock Show and included seven of the eight Teststrip members. It was to be the first of over 160 exhibitions, including an ongoing series of street front windows installations that Teststrip would show over the next 5 years. By 1994 a wider range of artists were being asked to exhibit including Ronnie van Hout, Billy Apple, Fiona Amundsen, Mikala Dwyer and Annie O’Neill.[4] In May 1997 a Teststrip Window exhibition by artist Peter Robinson, a painting entitled Pākehā have Rights too featuring a Nazi swastika, caused controversy when it was graffitied over in protest.[5] The last exhibition at Teststrip, Gold Watch: new work from the Teststrip Board included four of the original Teststrip members Cameron, Darragh, Kum and Malone plus Simon Cumming who had been with the group for most of the journey. By the time it closed in 1997 Teststrip had shown over 160 exhibitions.[6]
A feature of many Teststrip exhibitions was an accompanying Micrograph. The first of these was Pose compiled by Giovanni Intra and Susan Hillary for their exhibition of the same name in 1994. In all 26 Micrographs were published in three series. The last Micrograph was by Daniel Malone for his exhibition malone@artspace in 2003. Matthew Hyland in reviewing Micrographs 1-10 described them as, "distilling [art’s] essence so that the consumer has total control over her intake."[7]
A full list of all Teststrip exhibitions can be found in the book Teststrip: the history of an artist run space (1992-1997) and an archive of all issues of the Teststrip Micrographs is held at the E H McCormick Research Library, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.[8]
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