Michael Dell at the Suter Gallery Te Aratoti o Whakatū

Michael Dell's public exhibition Above Below / Tempelhofer Feld is on at the
Suter Gallery Te Aratoti o Whakatū, in Nelson until the 24 Aug 2025

It's a must see exhibition which has its genesis in conversations between the artist and his daughter April who lives near Tempelhofer Feld, a public park in the city of Berlin and maintains a garden plot there with family and friends at the park’s community gardens. On visits to Europe, in 2023 and 2024, Dell photographed those gardens and the wider environment at Tempelhof as research material for a site-specific art project which led to the exhibition.

Above Below / Tempelhofer Feld is Michael Dell’s impression of a sense of place at the field. The grounds at Tempelhof were formally an international airport for over a century, that at one time was regarded as the largest airport in Europe, now a vast open green space of 940-acres.

Tempelhofer Feld’s dense history is centuries old, but slowly engulfing all of those histories is the force of nature. Natural regeneration and the slow takeover of nature is reclaiming Tempelhofer Feld’s empty landscape, where a shifting ecology is visible all over the field. This transformation at the grounds, from an airport to public park, can now be seen as emblematic of the city of Berlin. A single site that embodies an every-changing and complex city, where the past, present and future all converge - a place that is avidly used by residents, visitors and every cross-section of the city’s diverse population.


Michael Dell
Above Below / Tempelhofer Feld
Venue: Suter Gallery Te Aratoti o Whakatū, Nelson
Dates: 15th Feb - 24 Aug 2025
Hours: 9.30 - 4.30pm (daily)