Uneasy
Spaces
5 May - 25 June 2000
This exhibition comprises work by five New Zealand artists for whom space is both a
visual and a conceptual concern. Although diverse in appearance, and representative of the
varied nature of contemporary sculpture and installation practice, the works in Uneasy
Spaces will explore the fragmented and often uncomfortable relationships that exist
between the artwork, the viewer and the mental and physical space between. Engaging with
and redefining that space, the artists explore the boundaries of physical and electronic
space, provoking the viewer to consider a variety of ideas, including the relationship
between solid and void, the manipulation, expansion and contraction of space, the tension
between electronic worlds and 'real space', and parallel concepts of space (physical space
versus experiential, remembered and imaginary spaces).
In recent years, the explosion of media technology has cultivated a new frontier -
electronic space. This is a zone full of contradiction, where a television set or computer
monitor can occupy only a small physical area yet provide entry to an almost boundless
world of images and information. The potential for interactive programming has allowed
electronic media artists the opportunity to present works which react to and touch the
viewer in ways that conventional art cannot. Installation art not only operates between
the physical and the imaginary, but also moves in time and space, provoking associations
and reactions that harvest our memories, our present experiences and our sense of the
future. This conflict between the obvious 'here and now' reality of a physical object and
its indefinable relationship to other times and places creates a challenging and often
uneasy tension.
Fiona Gunn has established a reputation for perceptive and evocative work which
articulates the space it occupies and engages the viewer in an often multi-faceted
dialogue. A lecturer in Fine Arts at the University of Canterbury, Gunn combined with
renowned British digital artist, Simon Biggs, in 1997 to create a collaborative work for
the High Street Project Gallery.
Italian-born Chiara Corbelletto has lived in Auckland since 1981, and consistently
explores the relationship between form and light in her sculptural practice. Her
background as an interior designer and architect may explain her desire to play with the
dynamic between her materials and the empty volume they are placed within. Corbelletto was
part of the finalist exhibition for the 1999 8th Annual Wallace/Visa Gold Art Awards which
was recently displayed in Christchurch.
Born in Tokyo in 1957, Kazu Nakagawa studied furniture-making at the Hatano Polytechnic
before coming to New Zealand in 1987. Although he continued to make furniture-based
objects, he moved from the functional towards a celebration of form itself, creating
immaculate objects which occupy and intensify the surrounding space. Nakagawa has said
previously that his aim is to make works which concentrate on what is "beyond the
edge" of the object itself. Sean Kerr has long been developing interactive artworks
which, through the use of electronic technology, react to, and engage with, their
audience. Using a combination of sound and image, his works characteristically combine a
direct, and often unsettling, interaction with the viewer with shrewd tongue-in-cheek
humour. Kerr, who currently lectures in Interactive Media at the Wellington Polytechnic
School of Design, has also produced several short videos and films.
Uneasy Spaces will also include a work by emerging Auckland-based artist Brendan
Wilkinson, whose miniature tableaus of everyday life explore both real and imaginary
worlds. Wilkinson's astute and playful work was included in the Govett Brewster Art
Gallery's Leap of Faith: Contemporary New Zealand Art exhibition in 1998.
Felicity Milburn
This exhibition was held at the Robert McDougall Contemporary Art Annex in the Arts Centre.
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