NZ Artists Chosen For Asia Residencies

NZ Artists Chosen For Asia Residencies

September 18, 2013

Auckland artist Reuben Paterson – renowned for his works in glitter and diamond dust - is one of five artists chosen for the Asia New Zealand Foundation’s 2014 artist-in-residence exchanges.

Paterson (Ngati Rangitihi and Ngai Tuhoe) will head to South Korea next year to undertake the Goyang Art Studio residency, after completing his tenure as artist in residence at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth.

The Asia New Zealand Foundation and Creative New Zealand - which supports three of the residencies - were delighted by the high standard of applications received for the 2014 opportunities. The artists will work at the studios and galleries for a minimum of two months.

The successful candidates are:

· Stephen Bain (Auckland) - Taipei Artist Village. Bain, a performance designer who has a background in architecture and theatre, plans to conduct research towards a new interactive performance in Auckland. He hopes to experience Taiwanese performance art and theatre, and to bring back to New Zealand knowledge of Taiwanese materials and artisan practices, such as the use of bamboo in constructions.

· Benjamin Buchanan (Wellington) - 1 Shanthi Road, Bangalore, India. Buchanan plans to explore traditional Indian paper-making and colour production from natural sources, to create a new body of work on paper. In 2012, Buchanan spent three months at the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing through the Wellington Asia Residency Exchange (WARE) offered by Asia New Zealand Foundation and Wellington City Council.

· Jae Hoon Lee (Auckland) - Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Lee, who has travelled extensively and describes himself as a “cultural wanderer”, plans to continue his work collecting images from everyday life. While in Indonesia, he will take field trips into the natural environment to obtain images, and construct a digitally rebuilt landscape of multiple images taken over a protracted period of time. Earlier this month, Korean-born Lee won the 2013 Wallace Arts Trust Paramount Award.

· Reuben Paterson (Auckland) - Goyang Art Studio, South Korea. Paterson plans to create new diamond dust and glitter paintings with imagery sourced from both urban and rural environments, building on work he has done in New Zealand. These will be shown at a solo exhibition at Galerie Belvedere, Singapore, in August 2014.

· Sam Thomas (Auckland) - Shalini Ganendra Fine Art residency, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Thomas is interested in continuing his research into game paintings and interactive objects. He plans to involve local industrial and craft workshops in the production of his pieces. He has previously completed self-funded art projects in India and undertook a residency in Rarotonga this year.

Asia New Zealand Foundation Director of Culture Jennifer King said the residencies were based in prominent institutions and offered artists fresh inspirations. “Residencies offer New Zealand artists the opportunity to absorb a whole range of new perspectives and ideas, which will likely impact on their work in all sorts of interesting ways for many years to come.”

Creative New Zealand’s Chief Executive, Stephen Wainwright said: “These residencies provide valuable opportunities for New Zealand artists to explore their artistic practices in Asian contexts.”

Christchurch artist Chris Pole, who spent two months on the Shalini Ganendra Fine Art residency in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year, said it allowed him to fully immerse himself in another culture. “It offered me a renewed focus and a fresh perspective on my practice, which was only possible by removing myself from familiar surrounds.

“I genuinely thrived during the residency, meeting artists, lecturers, students, gallery directors, and many other very generous people, some of whom I now call friends. Put simply, it was singularly the best art-making experience I have had.”

The residencies in South Korea, Indonesia and Taipei are made possible with funding from Creative New Zealand’s Toi Uru Kahikatea (Arts Development) Investment programme.

The Asia New Zealand Foundation is a non-profit, non-partisan organisation dedicated to building New Zealand’s links with Asia through a range of programmes, including business, culture, education, media, research and a Young Leaders Network.

ENDS

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