Laurence Aberhart was the first Tylee Resident and came round to our house a number of times. This series of his involved taking photographs of spaces rich with culture and signs of life but empty and vacant. This image of the Savage Club is familiar thirty five years later. When the first Friday of the month rolls by and music loving locals gather to dance and hold open mics in this strange hall. I have some friends, The Cardboard Box Club, who use this space for band practise. So I get the luxury of sitting by myself with live music surrounding me.
- Lola Camden, a gallery assistant at NZ Glassworks, for the February 2021 instalment of the My Choice exhibition series.


In 1986 Aberhart was the inaugural Tylee artist in residence. The images made during his 12 months in Wanganui (and other nearby regions) act as an important documentation of the area and its environs. As a body of work they reflect the preoccupations present in Aberhart’s entire oeuvre: lodges, waiting rooms, Churches, rest areas, museum displays, beaches, light, marae, monuments and memorials. Empty places and spaces with culture and people as ghosts, hinted at but only rarely revealed.