22 January — 22 March 2026
Artist Preview: Thursday, January 22 • 4:30 - 5:15PM
Opening: Thursday, January 22 • 5:30 - 7:30PM
Yvonne Todd:
Diary of a Carrot
Diary of a Carrot is a food-themed exhibition blending a range of media into an absurdist commentary on the act of eating.
Yvonne Todd, Insistence, 2013 C-type photograph, 80 x 66.2 cm. Private Collection.
Nibbler_12, 2025. Giclée print, courtesy of the artist.
This exhibition presents the 'Yvonne Todd take on food – oddball, disturbing, humorous, visually rich, metaphoric, and connecting with a range of sources and references from the artist’s personal archive. The works trace Todd’s long-standing fascination with food as both subject and symbol, where every bite recalls a moment, a mood, or a misadventure, inviting viewers to chew on the strange ways we connect through what we consume.
Todd’s visual interest in food was shaped as a child by a 1960s cookbook, Cookery in Colour, a household staple that her mother owned but never used. The food in Cookery in Colour was overly fussy, depicted by lurid saturated photographs of opaque savoury mousses and things submerged in aspic, with piped scrolls of mayonnaise the preferred garnish. The recipes spoke of suburban aspiration, of “entertaining” and people-pleasing with elaborate creations that required extensive time and technical skill. Cookery in Colour was one of Todd’s first experiences with staged photography and it left a lasting impression.
In Todd’s new AI generated series, Sullen 1880s Nibblers (2025), an array of unenthusiastic Victorian women mindlessly probe and poke at the dainty plates of food they hold on to their laps. Their movements are small and habitual; the act of eating becomes emptied of pleasure and transformed into a performance of restraint, an obligation rather than a desire. Within the historic grandeur of the Pah Homestead, their distracted prodding becomes a quiet form of resistance—a refusal to consume fully, to satisfy expectation, or to disappear politely into the background.
Todd’s knowledge of staged photography informs her use of AI, allowing her to extend and develop the tropes of portraiture that she has been invested in throughout her career. Food is an expansive yet deeply personal subject; everyone has strongly held views, traditions and preferences around what they eat (and don’t eat). Diary of a Carrot speaks to Todd’s interest in the familiar and skewing the familiar, as well as embodying ideas around the uncanny, and the absurd.
Events & Public Programme
Artist Walkthrough
Thursday, January 22 • 4:30 - 5:15PM. Free but please RSVP as spaces are limited.Opening
Thursday, January 22 • 5:30 - 7:30PM.
About the Artist
Yvonne Todd was born in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand in 1973 where she lives and works.
She received a BFA majoring in Sculpture from the University of Auckland in 2001. The following year she won the inaugural Walters Prize with a series of ten photographs made in her final year of study. Judge Harald Szeemann said it was the work that irritated him the most.
Since then, Todd’s work has been in numerous exhibitions in New Zealand and overseas. In 2019, Todd was a recipient of a Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.