News

  • 08-09-2011

    Suite Gallery Show and Courtenay Place Light Box Installation

    On Friday 19th August I have two openings in Wellington, New Zealand.  A show of my "Short Stories" series, with some new works based on the concept, but exploring new directions at Suite Gallery, 108 Oriental Parade from 6 pm. For more information go to http://www.suite.co.nz/exhibitions/short_stories  Also opening that night is Pilgrimage, an installation with Andy Palmer on the Courtenay Place Park light boxes. I will be at Courtenay Place from 5 – 6 pm and then at Suite. Hope to see you there if you are about.

  • 08-04-2011

    Pilgrimage Press Release

    Light box exhibition sheds light on fallow rugby fields

     

    A new collaborative photographic exhibition by Andy Palmer and David Boyce will be unveiled in a couple of weeks’ time at the light boxes in Courtenay Place Park. ‘Pilgrimage’ was selected by Wellington City Council’s Public Art Panel following a call to artists for proposals linked to competitive sport, particularly the Rugby World Cup that’s due to kick off in early September.

    Wellington City Council’s Arts and Culture Portfolio Leader, Councillor Ray Ahipene-Mercer, says the exhibition is a thoughtful tribute to the national sport.

    “We’re going to have thousands of visitors to the city during this time,” says Cr Ahipene-Mercer. “And where there’ll likely be images of rugby players plastered around the city in print and on screen, this exhibition will be a calm contrast to the goings on. It also gives us a chance to demonstrate – in a very public way – the rich variety and high calibre of Wellington art.”

    The title was initially inspired by a 1904 Evening Post article, where the nation’s excitement about rugby was already firmly cemented in New Zealand culture: ‘All Wellington, and all those who could find time and money to come to Wellington, flocked to Athletic Park… men hailing from hill, valley, or plain, from provincial township or wayback station – farmers, miners, sawmillers, clerks, bank managers – all sorts and condition of men, bent on a pilgrimage to the altar of the deity of Rugby.’

    Andy Palmer went on something of a pilgrimage himself, where he took off to the Wairarapa, King Country, the East Cape and more, in search of rugby fields to photograph.

    “I was surprised to find so many desolate fields,” says Andy. “There was a sense of loneliness in these places – something that hopefully comes across in the images.”

    Andy also explores issues such as the environmental impact and the cultural phenomena of rugby and its relationship to patriotism and national identity.

    Conceptual artist David Boyce looks at how cultural influences can come full circle. David says he is “interested in the beauty of things that we usually pass over” and also “the transformation of the mundane” and has used this in his approach to these works.

    David lives in China where he has been influenced by traditional Chinese scroll painting and calligraphy. His works, which are a commentary on the confluence of sport and language, use photographs of simple markings on sports grounds to create calligraphic-like images.

    “I find it interesting that I left Wellington to live in China and I am now bringing a version of China back to a part of Wellington that has strong historical connections to China and Chinese culture – the nearby Haining Street area,” says David.

    ‘Pilgrimage’ will be on view in the Courtenay Place Park light boxes from Friday 19 August until December. There will be an opening celebration at 6pm at Suite Gallery, 108 Oriental Parade – just across the road from Freyberg Pool – where David is exhibiting more works from the series. Media are invited to attend. 

    For more information on the Courtenay Place Park light boxes, go to Wellington.govt.nz

     

    For further information, please contact:

    Barbara Burke, Council Communications, phone 803 8527 or 021 227 8527

    Eve Armstrong, Arts Advisor, phone 803 8207 or 021 227 8207.

  • 12-03-2010

    Suite Gallery, New Zealand

    I have work in an upcoming show at Suite Gallery in Wellington, New Zealand which opens on Friday December 3rd and runs until Friday December 24th.  I am showing part of an ongoing body of work called The dis-consolation of art. This work deals with what I am calling "expected memories" and looks at cultrual memory and disconection.

  • 09-13-2010

    Simulated Alternate Realities

    Have been invited to take part in an exhibition at 1a Space in Hong Kong. It will run from 5 October until 10 November, and you are warmly invited to the opening cocktail reception at 7pm on Friday 8 October where a number of the artists will be present.

  • 09-12-2010

    Mixed Message

    Another show starting shortly, and whose work I will get up when I can (need to get some changes made to the website first) is Mixed Message, a show of a new body of work I have been calling Short Stories which is comprised of contact prints of an entire roll of 120 film. This continues my exploration of the beauty available in the mundane and the overlooked that I touched on earlier.