New book on NZ video pioneer Darcy Lange

Media Release

19 May 2009

Latest Govett-Brewster publication surveys work of New Zealand video pioneer Darcy Lange

The work of pioneering New Zealand video artist Darcy Lange (1946-2005) is celebrated in the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery’s latest publication Darcy Lange: Study of an Artist at Work.

Edited by the Govett-Brewster’s Curator, Contemporary Art, Mercedes Vicente, and co-published with Ikon, Birmingham, UK, this beautiful monograph offers the first comprehensive survey of Lange’s body of work.

Darcy Lange: Study of an Artist at Work is richly illustrated and features new texts by significant international and New Zealand academics and artists Guy Brett, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, Dan Graham, Lawrence McDonald, John Miller and Geraldene Peters, Pedro G. Romero and Mercedes Vicente. It also includes an extensive chronology and a list of works.

Govett-Brewster Director Rhana Devenport says, “The result of many years of intense and focused research led by Mercedes Vicente, this publication marks a seminal moment in the international appreciation of Darcy Lange, a pioneer video artist born in Taranaki. This co-publication also reflects the Govett-Brewster’s important relationship with Ikon and its role in presenting New Zealand artists globally”.

Beginning with Lange's early sculptural works, this publication focuses on his experimental video work of the 1970s and 1980s, which is now receiving renewed attention nationally and internationally.

With these works, he became one of the first artists to use the long take. Under the general theme of ‘people at work’, Lange recorded in real time people performing daily work tasks.

Mercedes Vicente, says “this publication offers an important contribution to existing scholarship on New Zealand video art. It also gives due recognition to Darcy Lange, one of the most important yet overlooked artists of his era. The contributions of the esteemed art historians and artists in this book serve as testament to this.”

Darcy Lange: Study of an Artist at Work is the result of a three-year project involving the archival preservation and ongoing cataloguing of Lange’s entire body of work, which is now deposited at the New Zealand Film Archive. This project has also seen the creation of the Darcy Lange Archive at the Govett-Brewster.

The book Darcy Lange: Study of an Artist at Work was born out of the 2006 Govett-Brewster retrospective of the same name, which travelled nationally. Since then Lange's work continues to find new audiences overseas. Most recently in 2008 – 2009, Ikon featured the exhibition Work Studies in Schools, which is now touring to Camera Austria in Kunsthaus Graz. Other venues include Moderna Galerija in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Cabinet Magazine in New York. In addition, Electronic Art Intermix will soon be offering Lange’s videos for international distribution.

Darcy Lange: Study of an Artist at Work is now available through the Govett-Brewster Art and Design Shop, at selected bookstores New Zealand wide and internationally through Cornerhouse. It was published with generous support from Creative New Zealand, Taranaki Electricity Trust and the Govett-Brewster Foundation.

Darcy Lange: Study of an Artist at Work
NZ RRP (incl GST) $60
ISBN 9781904864509
Pages 208
Format Softback 275 x 210 mm
Illustration Colour and b&w

ENDS

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