Fffuture Fffocused Art Prize at The Physics Room

Second Media release – 9 June, 2017

Fffuture Fffocused Art Prize
Riff Raff

Exhibition Preview: Friday 16 June at 5.30pm
Exhibition Runs: Saturday 17 June – Sunday 16 July 2017

The Physics Room is proud to announce the four outstanding artists who have been selected as finalists for the inaugural Fffuture Fffocused Art Prize (FFAP). Applicants were submitted through an anonymous nomination process, and were then blind assessed by the selection panel, comprised of artist duo Riff Raff. “We were impressed not only by the high quality of the submissions, but also the incredible range of practices at play, spanning painting to performance and beyond”, said Riff Raff.

The Physics Room Director, Jamie Hanton is excited by the duo’s selections.

“Despite their limited curatorial experience, Riff Raff have pulled together a combination of artists who provide rigorously unique interpretations of ideas of the future, and, in some cases, what such a future or futures might look like. I’m looking forward to working with them to present and support the work in a way that maximizes engagement for both artists and the general public.”

The Finalists

Cabbage

b. 2007, Pouto, Northland, NZ

The digital realm is simultaneously perplexing and enticing for Cabbage. What does it mean to be canine in a digital age? Cabbage’s work deals with the alarming absence of odour in the advancement of digital technology. In canine society, objects without a scent are not considered real. Even inanimate objects carry smelltraces picked up through their lifetime of interactions. This dogged investigation into the digital naturally raises another issues, how are animals currently represented online? Cabbage opens the door to a multi-sensory, vital, and animistic environment, beyond our limited anthropocentric understanding.

Salvo Las Vegas

b. 1975, Oamaru, NZ

Salvo Las Vegas’ sculptural investigations explore the possibilities of replication and the interfaces between handmade and industrial processes. The incongruities revealed in these processes are integral to Las Vegas, who believes the imperfections foreshadow a kind of ultimate material strength that can only arise out of mutation and sheer quantity. Their consistent pairing of anatomical forms with mass produced recreational objects brings to mind questions around over population, natural selection and the future of material industry and production.

Printo Moorth

b. 1959, Kerikeri, Northland, NZ

Moorth undertook nursing training at Northtec, Whangarei and went on to complete graduate studies at the University of Southampton, UK. It was during their many years of voluntary field work for Medicins sans Frontieres that Moorth took an interest in painting and its healing potential. Given Moorth’s intimate experiences with the human body in all its states; damaged, diseased, in repair. It’s been recently suggested that Moorth’s paintings have a way of communicating directly with viewer’s nervous systems rather than language-based systems of understanding. We know the human body reacts in unexpected ways to environmental factors and visceral imagery. But what is most keenly felt, when faceto- face with a Moorth painting, is resounding respite.

Charchat Scintal

b. 2005, Palmerston North, NZ

Scintal’s explorations of the paranormal, via custom made hardware built by their parents, offer an idiosyncratic attempt to introduce a fourth dimension into art making. Their visionary practice uses the body as a conduit for the future, inhabiting a tenuous artistic position between time-based media and psychic performance. The selection panel are unfazed about the controversy surrounding Scintal’s work, stating that the questions it raises around authenticity, authorship, and the increasing prominence of technology in art, only increase the work’s intrigue.

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The exhibition’s public programme will include an artist talk, curator panel discussion and awards dinner. Gallery visitors will also have the opportunity to vote for a People’s Choice Award, which will be announced at the end of the exhibition.

Public Programme:

Artist Talk: Saturday 17 June, 2pm

Curator Panel Discussion: Saturday 1 July, 2pm Awards Dinner: Saturday 1 July, 7pm (private event) -- Riff Raff originated as a semi-imaginary artist-run space started by Li-Ming Hu and Daphne Simons in mid-2016. Previous projects include: Trust Us, Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington, 2017 and Are We There Yet?, Glovebox, Auckland, 2016.

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