SCAPE: New Zealand Community Trust Art & Industry Urban Arts Biennial
Press Release - August 2002SCAPE Programme Ready for Launch
Details of SCAPE's urban arts biennial - the largest presentation of site-specific visual arts in New Zealand - are now on-line at www.artandindustry.org.nz.
The programme includes exhibitions and projects by leading contemporary artists from New Zealand and around the world. The New Zealand contingent includes Michael Parekowhai, Ani O'Neill, Simon Morris, Tony de Lautour, Ngahiraka Mason, Nathan Pohio, Rachel Rakena, Maree Mills, Eugene Hansen, Darryn George, Lonnie Hutchinson, Caroline Rothwell, Madame & The Bastard and Chris Cree Brown.
International artists include Britons Nathan Coley, Kathleen Herbert, Richard Wentworth and Tacita Dean; Matej Andra Vogrincic (Slovenia); Ed Osborn (USA); Anu Lehtonen (Finland); Lucy Orta (France); Erwin Wurm (Austria) and Joy Hardman (Australia).
Works and exhibitions will be concentrated in the central city, enabling easy access. Exhibits include a group exhibition of contemporary Maori art at SoFA Gallery in the Arts Centre of Christchurch. This unique presentation involves video projections onto a tent-like structure, creating a virtual glowing 'whare' in the gallery space.
Also on display will be a number of site-specific works in the Botanic Gardens, Canterbury Museum and the Arts Centre including sculpture, installation and intervention works by New Zealand artists. There will also be a number of major exhibitions by international artists at The Physics Room Gallery, Jonathan Smart Gallery and the Centre of Contemporary Art; and an exhibition by one of New Zealand's foremost sculptors at Our City.
A notable feature of the SCAPE biennial is the site-specific video component, which screens artists' videos at unexpected locations throughout the inner city including Scorpio Books, Plume, Workshop, Ballantynes, Christchurch Central City Library, the Cathedral, Warners Hotel and the Bank of New Zealand in Cathedral Square. Many of the videos are by international artists exploring a variety of subjects from recycling to family bonds, but are united by their evocation of the uncanny, whereby the familiar becomes strange through intense scrutiny.
A full programme/guidebook will be available for $2.00 from SCAPE venues from the 23rd of August. The biennial runs from 1st September - 30th November 2002.
For further information please contact:
Deborah McCormick
Director
Art & Industry Biennial Trust
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