Rhona Eve Clews – Land and Sound
Exhibition by Rhona Eve Clews (UK) exploring the relationship between landscape, sound and creativity through a visual exploration of New Zealand experimental musician’s gardens. Colour works on film detail the natural environment, photographed 2012-2015, North and South Island, New Zealand.
With a background in both psychology and photography, Rhona’s practice explores our interrelationship with landscape and nature. Working predominately with analogue processes including 120mm film, her methods include working directly with the elements and aspects of both performance and ritual, revealing her attempts to penetrate, climb inside and understand significant, spaces, journeys and mythologies.
She has previously exhibited in the UK, USA, Europe and New Zealand.
This exhibition is a part of the Auckland Photography Fringe Festival.
Matthew Cowan – Thresholding
Matthew Cowan’s practice is in the realm of traditional customs and rituals. His works are photographs, videos, installations and performances, which play with the inherent strangeness of the continued popularity of long established customs in a modern world. These works can be viewed as mock performances in themselves, playing with the elements of ceremonies and rituals that give people a link to the past. Recent work has focused on the mythical fantasy-land of Cockaigne, a paradise not just built on this topsy-turvy structure, but possessing wild fantasies of freedom from exertion, bountiful supplies of food, sexual liberty and escalated celebration and festivity.
These video pieces mine the folkloric through both real and remained ritual practices. Each deals with geography in its own way, exaggerating a focus on ‘place’ and the change in state that comes with the marking of one’s time and location.
For the year 2009, Matthew Cowan was the artist in residence at Cecil Sharp House, the headquarters of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Other recent projects have been at the Braunschweig University of Art, Germany (2015), the KONE Foundation Saari Residency in Finland (2013), ASIA New Zealand residency in Sapporo, Japan (2013), Art OMI in New York (2011) , and at Est-Nord-Est centre for artists in Quebec (2012).
Recent solo shows have been ‘Flowerbeard’ at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Auckland (2013), ‘Cosmic Weight’ at Corner Gallery, Auckland (2014), ‘The Trees are Thick with Butter’ at Nurture Art in New York (2013) and ‘The Island of the Day Before’ at Agency Gallery in London (2012). Matthew Cowan’s work has been included in the recent group exhibitions ‘Imagine Asia’ at Pataka Museum (2015), ‘Unstuck in Time’ at Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Auckland (2014) and ‘Terminalia’ at Charlie Smith London (2014).
Currently Matthew Cowan is based in Braunschweig, Germany.
http://www.circuit.org.nz/artist/matthew-cowan
Opening night Thursday June 4th with performance by Michael Morley (NZ), and live Morris dance
performance.
Artist’s Talk Saturday 6th June 2015, 2pm
Artists Rhona Eve Clews (UK) and Marie Shannon (NZ) will be in dialogue discussing the ideas and processes surround Land and Sound and Rhona’s creative practice.
Special thanks to CNZ for their support.