Arts
Listen to artists Christina Pataialii, Deborah Rundle, Shannon Novak and Jeff Nusz in conversation with Te Tuhi Artistic Director Gabriela Salgado, 1 December 2018. The artists discuss the development of their new exhibitions at Te Tuhi, alongside the main lines of research that inform their practice. The kōrero is concluded with a Q&A with audience members. About the artists Christina Pataialii’s recent paintings address objective and subjective cultural narratives that focus on more recent global shifts towards cultural and national redefinition, the rise of Western nationalist ideologies and current fixations on regression to a ‘golden era,’ contemplating the concept of a shared national identity. Pataialii graduated with a BFA (2015) and an MFA (2018) from Whitecliffe College of Arts and design. Recent exhibitions include Debt, RM Gallery, 2018;Thoughts and Feelings, mother?, 2018; Projects, Auckland Art fair, 2018; Never an Answer, The Vivian, 2018; Slow Jamz Till Midnight, Blue Oyster Project Space, 2017; The Tomorrow People, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, 2017. Deborah Rundle is an artist living and working in Tāmaki Makaurau. Principally utilising text, she investigates the ways in which power plays out in the social and political domain in order to muse on possibilities for change. Frequently calling up the past, her artworks engage in both a critique of the present, and a lament for the failure of a future once promised. Recent exhibitions include Hybrid Spring, Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington, 2018; March Mostra, BSR Gallery, Rome, Italy, 2018; The Tomorrow People, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Wellington, 2017; DOWN TIME, Play_station Gallery, Wellington, 2017 New Zealand artist Shannon Novak works with sound and explores contemporary gay issues. He creates compositions for objects, locations, and people much as musicians might compose for/about places, persons, or experiences with emotional resonance for them. Trained initially as a pianist, his practice encompasses painting, sculpture, and installation, with a focus on using geometric forms to explore and render his understanding of the interrelationships between sound, colour, form, time, space, and social context. He also examines the ways in which the plurality and tensions of gay desire muddy and morph geometrical purity and idealism. Jeffrey Nusz is an interactive artist based in Auckland. His installations and online pieces attempt to offer new perspectives on complex and invisible phenomenon through playful interaction. Nusz enjoys collaborations as a way of exploring the creative process of other artists and discovering places neither could reach alone. In 2010, he co-founded Screens, an online gallery for interactive art, which among other work, featured his collaborations with John Ward Knox, Seung Yul Oh and Jae Hoon Lee. As creative lead of the Google Data Arts Team in San Francisco from 2014-2017 he created interactive work with international artists for a global audience. Image: Deborah Rundle Auspices 1943-, 2018 (still) looped digital animation, 15’00” courtesy of the artist