David SunSeek
Claudia Jowitt
Claudia Jowitt Untitled
Ahilapalapa Rands
Getting Closer
Sam Atasani
Irreplaceable
The plentiful food table on opening night and a few certain tutors hovering...
A few AUT students are a part of the Tautai exhibition at St Paul Street. Despite the slightly cringe name, Don't Pacify Me, it turned out to be better than some of the Tautai shows I had been to in the past. Painters Claudia and Sam had some work in as well as Ahi from sculpture who did a little install.
Favourites:
- Jeremy Leatinu'u's Cutting the Grass, a 15 minute video of just that, cutting grass. A little tongue-in-cheek and talks about pacific issues without being overt.
- Claudia's painting, even though i've seen it from its conception to finish practically every day this year, I haven't gotten sick of it yet! I like how Claudia's practice (clearly not pacific) can be curated in an exhibition like this.
I was talking with Clinton about ideas surround identity and culture (he is Indian and I was born in Hong Kong) and he raised an interesting point. What about the people with some sort of grounding in another cultural heritage, but who isn't interested in exploring these issues in their own practice? What becomes of those of us first generation New Zealanders making seemingly 'western' art in a western country? Perhaps it's a non-issue. I'd like to think no one looks at the colour of my hair or skin anymore and I know that my art has never been viewed in any sort of cultural skew either. New Zealand is also a giant mix bag of cultures as it is.
However, Clinton doesn't think so. He thinks there is something interesting about this idea. That our take on generating art is quite different and he's wanting to cultivate it a little...
The culture thing has come up in small doses over my art school years. I've had my practice called many things before...masculine, feminine, calculated, constructed, but only once has it ever been called 'asian', and when I recently asked that person if they still thought they way, they said they had since changed their mind.
During a crit with a visiting lecturer, they asked if I'd ever considered painting large realist works as there's a big movement of very successful Chinese artists doing so. I asked him if he thought I could hop on the bandwagon, that if I changed my practice now, I could potentially make a lot of money. He said he didn't know, that I didn't seem interested in such possibilities. I told him he was right but that I'd keep it in the back of my mind as Plan B.
Julian once told me that if I was at art school 15 years or so ago, I'd be asked to take a stance, whether it be on myself as a woman or as an immigrant, or better yet, a Chinese woman immigrant.
I don't really know my stance on either.
- Agnes
Ahilapalapa RandsGetting Closer
Sam AtasaniIrreplaceable
The plentiful food table on opening night and a few certain tutors hovering...A few AUT students are a part of the Tautai exhibition at St Paul Street. Despite the slightly cringe name, Don't Pacify Me, it turned out to be better than some of the Tautai shows I had been to in the past. Painters Claudia and Sam had some work in as well as Ahi from sculpture who did a little install.
Favourites:
- Jeremy Leatinu'u's Cutting the Grass, a 15 minute video of just that, cutting grass. A little tongue-in-cheek and talks about pacific issues without being overt.
- Claudia's painting, even though i've seen it from its conception to finish practically every day this year, I haven't gotten sick of it yet! I like how Claudia's practice (clearly not pacific) can be curated in an exhibition like this.
I was talking with Clinton about ideas surround identity and culture (he is Indian and I was born in Hong Kong) and he raised an interesting point. What about the people with some sort of grounding in another cultural heritage, but who isn't interested in exploring these issues in their own practice? What becomes of those of us first generation New Zealanders making seemingly 'western' art in a western country? Perhaps it's a non-issue. I'd like to think no one looks at the colour of my hair or skin anymore and I know that my art has never been viewed in any sort of cultural skew either. New Zealand is also a giant mix bag of cultures as it is.
However, Clinton doesn't think so. He thinks there is something interesting about this idea. That our take on generating art is quite different and he's wanting to cultivate it a little...
The culture thing has come up in small doses over my art school years. I've had my practice called many things before...masculine, feminine, calculated, constructed, but only once has it ever been called 'asian', and when I recently asked that person if they still thought they way, they said they had since changed their mind.
During a crit with a visiting lecturer, they asked if I'd ever considered painting large realist works as there's a big movement of very successful Chinese artists doing so. I asked him if he thought I could hop on the bandwagon, that if I changed my practice now, I could potentially make a lot of money. He said he didn't know, that I didn't seem interested in such possibilities. I told him he was right but that I'd keep it in the back of my mind as Plan B.
Julian once told me that if I was at art school 15 years or so ago, I'd be asked to take a stance, whether it be on myself as a woman or as an immigrant, or better yet, a Chinese woman immigrant.
I don't really know my stance on either.
- Agnes
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