New Zealand Premiere of Candice Breitz Video Installations

MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release: 4 February 2015

New Zealand Premiere of Candice Breitz Video Installations

City Gallery Wellington, 28 March–26 June

City Gallery Wellington is thrilled to present video installations by acclaimed international artist, Candice Breitz. On show for the first time in New Zealand, from 28 March until 26 June, these multi-screen installations explore identity and the way we are shaped by popular culture, nationality and other influences.

City Gallery Chief Curator, Robert Leonard, says, ‘Breitz is a world-renowned artist who uses familiar mass-media conventions as sources of amusement and insight. The show is a great chance to see installations from three major series of works – including her latest, The Woods – representing different aspects of her thinking.’

King (A Portrait of Michael Jackson) (2005) is a multi-channel video installation that portrays the pop icon in his absence. Sixteen passionate Michael Jackson fans re-perform the Thriller album, sampling and remixing Jackson’s public persona in their own quest for individual expression.

In Factum (2010), Breitz edits interviews with identical twins and triplets, playing on similarities and differences in what they say and how they say it.

The Woods (2012) refers to three of the world’s largest film industries, Hollywood (US), Bollywood (India) and Nollywood (Nigeria). Traversing three continents, it explores the on-screen and off-screen personae of professional child actors and of adult actors who have become famous playing children.

Candice Breitz says, ‘To maintain a notion of who we are requires a certain consistency, the constant repeating and confirming of certain beliefs, values and behaviours. We learn who we are by watching others. We learn to speak in the same way through mimicry and repetition. We get to know ourselves through our recurring desires. The video loop is a great way to explore this very human drama’

Breitz was born in Johannesburg in 1972 and lives in Berlin. She has been a Professor of Fine Art at the Braunschweig University of Art since 2007. Her work can be found in the collections of Hamburger Kunsthalle (Hamburg), Museum of Modern Art (New York), and Fonds national d'art contemporain (Puteaux, France). Over the past decade, she has seen a steady rise in international recognition, including a slew of solo museum shows and participation in the biennials of São Paulo, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Singapore, Gwangju, Taipei, and Venice.

Candice Breitz is represented by White Cube (London), Kaufmann Repetto (Milan), and the Goodman Gallery (Johannesburg and Cape Town).

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