Two exhibitions
dal 26/7/2005 al 20/8/2005
Segnalato da
26/7/2005
Two exhibitions
Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney
Shane Cotton, Pararaiha. Her paintings explore his dual Maori and European cultural heritages. Drawing from global popular culture and tribal tradition, artist's works participate in an international dialogue. John Tonkin, Strange Weather. The artist started working with computer animation in 1985. He makes his works using his own custom software developed in programming languages such as Java and C++.
Shane Cotton, Pararaiha
(Nga Puhi: Ngati Rangi, Ngati Hine, Te Uri Taniwha)
Born 1964, Upper Hutt, New Zealand
Shane Cotton’s paintings explore his dual Maori and European cultural heritages. Drawing from global popular culture and tribal tradition, Cotton’s works participate in an international dialogue while being grounded in the stories and customs of the Tai-tokerau region of Northland; as such, they are increasingly regarded as significant visual documents in New Zealand’s emerging bicultural identity.
After graduating from art school at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, in 1988, Cotton first came to national prominence in 1993 with a series of sepia-toned paintings depicting everyday objects (including cooking pots, pot plants, bowler hats, boats and tea cups), whose primary source was the nineteenth-century painted Maori meeting houses. Widely exhibited throughout New Zealand and Australia, works from this series were included in Localities of Desire at Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art in 1994.
Cotton was awarded the prestigious Frances Hodgkins Fellowship in 1998, spending a year reflecting deeply on his family’s Northland history. Many major works incorporating the painted word came from around this period, including the magisterial Eden to Ohaeawai, which details his whakapapa or genealogy, and Kenehi III, which conflates Maori and European spiritual traditions. A major survey exhibition of Cotton’s work was shown in 2003 at City Gallery Wellington and the Auckland Art Gallery. In 2004, Cotton’s works were included in Paradise Now? at the Asia Society Museum, New York, and in 2005 he represented New Zealand at the Prague Biennal.
Among Cotton’s many awards are the Seppelt Contemporary Art Award (1998) and the Te Waka Toi Award for New Work (1999). His works are included in many major collections, including Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand, Wellington; Auckland Art Gallery; the Chartwell Collection; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.
Lara Strongman
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John Tonkin, Strange Weather
Born 1963, Adelaide. Lives and works Sydney.
After studying biological sciences he began making experimental film and video in the early 1980's. He started working with computer animation in 1985. Tonkin makes his works using his own custom software developed in programming languages such as Java and C++. In 1999-2000 he received a fellowship from the Australia Council's New Media Arts Board.
His animations include air, water parts 1, 2 & 3 (1993–95), a series of lyrical and poetic studies of the elements air and water, and these are the days (1994) a meditation on the passing of time. These works used mathematical modelling to create abstracted simulations of natural systems. They were screened extensively both within Australia and internationally including International Symposium of Electronic Art (ISEA 93) Minneapolis USA, and Prix Ars Electronica 1994, Austria.
meniscus (1995-2000) is a series of web / installation works that explore ideas relating to scientific belief systems, subjectivity and identity. It consists of Elective Physiognomies, Elastic Masculinities and Personal Eugenics. Exhibitions included ISEA 95 Montreal Canada, National Gallery of Victoria 1996, National Portrait Gallery Canberra 2000, and Queensland Art Gallery 2001
Tonkin's recent works involve building frameworks / tools / toys in which the artwork is formed through the accumulated interactions of its users. He is currently working on a number of projects that use real-time 3d animation, visualisation and data-mapping technologies. These include Strange Weather, a visualisation tool for making sense of life, and time and motion study. Recent international exhibitions have included Media City Seoul - 2nd International Media Art Biennale Seoul Museum of Art 2002, Ozone Pompidou Center Paris 2003 and Digital Sublime - New Masters of Universe, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei 2004.
Image: JOHN TONKIN
SCATTER PLOT 2005
custom 3D interactive
courtesy the artist and Sherman Galleries, Sydney
Sherman Galleries
16-20 Goodhope St - Paddington
Sydney