I would like to see it as the last.’[2] Vivieaere selected a broad range of artists who worked in a variety of media and were at different stages of their careers.
[4]: 36 Twenty-three artists formed the core exhibition: As the exhibition progressed other artists were added including Evotia Tamu, Sheyne Tuffery, Luana Asiata, Sasha Kronfeld, Glenda Vilisoni, Sale Jessop and the musical group Grace (made up of brothers Anthony, Jason and Paul Ioasa).
[4]: 136 At the Auckland Art Gallery a mirrored floor was used and some of the works remained in their travelling crates or were partly unpacked.
[6]: 432 Reviewing the exhibition for Art AsiaPacific Wendy Vaigro wrote As the ostensible organising principle of Bottled Ocean, 'Pacific Islandness' is utilised as a term that references, ironically, attempts to homogenise Polynesian artists working in New Zealand.
In challenging the closure of aesthetic and political categories and conventional curatorial practices, Jim Vivieaere creates Bottled Ocean as a meta-exhibition.
[8]: 46 He continued: The mainstream audience may be primarily interested in the tropical colourfulness of the work, in the apparent conformity of its spirituality with New Age environmentalism, in its exoticism.