Whitireia hosts artists in residence

Whitireia hosts artists in residence

The Whitireia Visual Arts and Design department is currently hosting two professors from Idaho’s Boise State University as part of its Artists in Residence programme.

Caroline Earley and Kate Walker arrived at the Whitireia campus in Porirua last week ahead of a six week collaborative residency that will see them engaging with Arts faculty staff and students to mentor and model arts-based practices. Whitireia has provided the artists with a studio, wall space and a kiln to make finished works during the residency.

Earley is a professor of ceramics at Boise State University, whose work is grounded in the vessel tradition and emphasises the relationship between form and function through the shifting interplay of form, appendage and surface. Walker is a professor of interdisciplinary art, whose practice encompasses painting, drawing and digital video as a means to explore contemporary social issues. Both have exhibited their work around the world, including in New Zealand.

While in residence at Whitireia, the two will work on a collaborative project. “We’ve often talked about the similar social and political ideas associated with our work, in terms of art as a way of engaging with controversial ideas,” said Walker. “The works in this project all relate to LGBTQ conversations in a subtle way.”

“The collaborative aspect is also a big part of the conversation,” added Earley. “You’re making incursions into someone else’s territory in a way. At first I thought – ‘You want to draw on my pieces?’ But once she did I realised they were even better.”

Walker said they would be holding an intensive workshop with students in which they will discuss collaboration and the influence of location and place. Earley noted that while their own project had a general framework, it could take a sharp turn at any time based on something they see or experience. “This is the power of being connected to the local,” she said.

Earley and Walker will be in residence at the Whitireia Arts Faculty from 14 June to 25 July.

ENDS

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