Temporary contemporary art series announced

http://news.massey.ac.nz

Friday, January 11, 2008
Temporary contemporary art series announced

Twenty public artworks will be created in five New Zealand cities, but they will each exist for no more than a 24-hour period.

One Day Sculpture will begin in June and continue until June 2009 in Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin

Initiated by UK-based curator Claire Doherty and Massey University’s Litmus Research Initiative, One Day Sculpture is a series of place-responsive public artworks by national and international artists. The works will reflect a diversity of artistic approaches including sculpture, installation and performance events.

Ms Doherty says One Day Sculpture is the first international art project of its kind.

“Taking time, space and place as its inspiration, the project turns the concept of a scattered-site exhibition of new artworks on its head, offering the opportunity to engage with each newly commissioned artwork for one day only, one after another, as a cumulative series over one year.

“The twenty new works will accumulate over 12 months across the country forming a dynamic and long-lasting reconsideration of what sculpture can be. They will challenge conventional assumptions about permanence, monumentality and the public realm.”

Dr David Cross, Litmus Director says One Day Sculpture provides an unprecedented opportunity for New Zealand audiences to engage with temporary public artworks by leading contemporary artists; and for New Zealand artists, curators and writers to examine – in dialogue with international peers – notions of public sculpture and place-sensitive art practice.

Confirmed artists include leading international artists Roman Ondak (Slovakia), Thomas Hirschhorn (Switzerland/France) and Javier Tellez (Venezuela/New York) alongside prominent New Zealand-based artists including Billy Apple and Maddie Leach.

To give audiences a taste of what is to come, the One Day Sculpture launch on 7 March in Wellington will be accompanied by the public presentation of Roman Ondak's celebrated work Good Feelings in Good Times, loaned from the Tate Collection, London. Ondak is known internationally for his staging of familiar scenarios in which unexpected actions occur. Taking the form of installations, performances and interventions, his works provoke viewers to question their understanding and perception of everyday life.

Good Feelings in Good Times is a static queue of people – with seemingly no point of resolution or purpose – that can be read as a sculpture, performance or intervention. The work will take place across a number of unspecified Wellington locations on 7 March.

One Day Sculpture is supported by Wellington City Council Public Art Fund, The British Academy, Goethe Institut, and Massey University.

ENDS

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