Artist’s Work In Progress At Govett-Brewster

Artist’s Work In Progress At Govett-Brewster Art Gallery

Expatriate New Zealander Joyce Campbell has begun a 10-week residency at New Plymouth’s Govett-Brewster Art Gallery.

The residency is a partnership venture between the Gallery and Taranaki Polytechnic and is funded by Creative New Zealand.

Now based in Los Angeles, the artist arrived in New Plymouth on 20 June and has begun researching materials and developing her exhibition tools with gusto.

Joyce Campbell was born in Wairoa and graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from Auckland University. Campbell was included in the then National Art Gallery’s major exhibition ART NOW 1994 in Wellington and the world renowned Sydney Biennale in 1998. She had a strong history of working and exhibiting with artist-run spaces in New Zealand before moving to the United States.

“The residency in New Plymouth is a great opportunity to research pioneering work of abstract filmmaker Len Lye, whom I admire”. Joyce Campbell said.

Campbell, who is developing a film installation for the Gallery, will be using multiple projectors to create a random, cinematic effect. The installation, called deep down, will be a “description of a fictional underwater environment”. She says, “The work will be about how we experience and become conscious of spaces”.

Gallery Director Greg Burke said that Campbell’s residency continues the Gallery’s long-standing tradition of supporting leading developments in contemporary art. “In particular the residency registers and supports the strong and developing link between artists in Los Angeles and New Zealand”.

Campbell has been rigorously researching her project while in New Plymouth. Her research has included a full course in scuba diving at the same time as locating obscure chemicals that are required to construct her events for filming.

She will be giving a public lecture on her work at 6pm Tuesday 24 July at the Gallery.

Campbell’s exhibition opens on Saturday 25 August at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery.

For further information please contact
Greg Burke, Director
Hanna Scott, Art Development Curator

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