McCahon House Artists in Residence 2015 -2016 Announced

PRESS RELEASE

Released: 13 November 2014

McCahon House Artists in Residence 2015 -2016 Announced

McCahon House Trust is delighted to announce the three outstanding New Zealand artists, Louise Menzies, Bepen Bhana and Suji Park, who have been selected for the 2015 -2016 artists’ residency programme.

Louise Menzies, an Auckland based artist, typically offers us objects, images and situations that explore past and present through attention to the way they are already represented. Her cross-media practice has incorporated film and print into performances and installations.

Menzies takes up her residency in late autumn 2016,"I'm honoured and excited to have been awarded this opportunity to undertake a McCahon House residency. The focused time and space the residency provides is invaluable, and will allow me to begin a series of new work with an intensity and purpose that can be otherwise difficult to carve out as an artist. I can't wait." Bepen Bhana is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, writer and academic based in Auckland. His studio based research practice encompasses a number of art and design subjects, and is connected conceptually and polemically through critical investigations that examine integral components of Popular Culture.

Upon being informed of being offered a 3 month residency in summer 2016, Bhana responded, “Viewing the caliber of practitioners who have previously been awarded this residency over the past nine years, and what they have gone on to achieve in both their practice and careers post-residency, I’m flattered to be selected for such an esteemed, competitive and highly sort after residency. I’d like to sincerely thank the selection panel, the McCahon House Trust and everyone involved in the McCahon House Artists’ Residency for this prestigious opportunity, and I look forward to making the most of it.” Park, a New Zealand–Korean artist, works across a range of media including fired and unfired clay embellished with gold leaf, tempera, garnet, pigment and mica epoxy to create works ranging from iridescent abstract forms to intricately subjective figurative sculpture.

Suji Park takes up her residency in spring 2015. “I am eager to begin my residency at McCahon House. The three-month period will afford me a much needed period of research and reflection in order to work on recent developments of my practice. I am looking forward to living and working in the same space and in an environment that will inspire me”. These three artists have been selected to further develop their skills and practice in an environment that shifts artists into a new context charged with artistic legacy.

Following a rigorous selection process the panel commented, “the applications received revealed the depth and variety of practice around making, materials, research and ideas. The number of full time artists in NZ is increasing and the residency is a part of that landscape”.

During their residency, located in the purpose built studio and accommodation adjacent to McCahon House Museum in French Bay Titirangi, the artists will engage with local community and artists though a public programme that includes studio visits and talks. Each artist will contribute a work to the McCahon House Artists Residency collection, and gift work for fundraising purposes. Alumni work can be seen in the halls of the Lopdell Precinct.

The residencies are supported through funding from Creative New Zealand. The Trust is supported by many organisations and individuals including: The Trusts Community Foundation, ASB Community Trust, and Waitakere Ranges Local Board. For more information please see www.mccahonhouse.org.nz Expanded artist biographies below

Bepen Bhana

Bepen Bhana is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, writer and academic who lives and works in Auckland.

He is a Doctorate graduate of the Elam School of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland.

His studio based research practice encompasses a number of art and design subjects, and is connected conceptually and polemically through critical investigations that examine integral components of Popular Culture.

Bhana’s most recent solo projects include: The Leif Garrett Fun Club at Ferarispace, Postcards From the Edge at Te Tuhi Center for the Arts, The Curry Bunch at Mangere Arts Center – Nga Tohu o Uenuku, Boom! Boom! Deluxe at Papakura Art Gallery; What Would We Do Baby, Without Us? at Window, The University of Auckland; Namese, Satkara the Curry Bunch at Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Dream IF You Want To Go Faster at the Bledisloe Light Boxes for Auckland Council.

Suji Park

Suji Park is a New Zealand-Korean contemporary artist based in Auckland.

Parks enigmatic practice follows a cyclical intuitive approach to materiality involving a mode of destruction and reconstitution of her media. Her sculptural works range of iridescent abstract forms to intricately subjective figurative sculpture.

From Park’s gestural interaction with matter issue vestiges of fragmented narrative fabricated from personal, historical and spiritual sources. These elusive threads have led her to explore an interest in archaeological relics and inquire into concepts of alchemical processes.

Park works across a range of media including fired and unfired clay embellished with gold leaf, tempera, garnet, pigment and mica epoxy. She explores both traditional and unconventional methodologies in an autobiographical collision between artist and media. Park skillfully imbues her reconstituted sculptures with new life by accenting subtleties, nuances and interactions between these opposing elements to form new histories and new cultures.

Park completed an MFA at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland in 2013, has held numerous solo exhibitions, contributed to work to various group shows and art events throughout Australasia.

Louise Menzies

Louise Menzies, an Auckland based artist, typically offers us objects, images and situations that explore past and present through attention to the way they are already represented. Her cross-media practice has incorporated film and print into performances and installations.

In 2013 her work featured in the solo exhibition World, Business, Lifestyle, Sport (The Physics Room, Christchurch) and the group exhibitions Freedom Farmers (Auckland Art Gallery) and Everybody knows this is nowhere (castillo/corrales, Paris).

Menzies has recently returned from being artist in residence at the University of Connecticut and together with Marnie Slater and Jon Bywater completed Die Toilette, the fifth installment of The Social Life of the Book (Paraguay Press, Paris).

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