Venue
The Most Difficult Problem, 2013 (still)

The Most Difficult Problem, 2013 (still)

Text from J Bronte Gatenby, 'The New Zealand Glow-Worm' (Tuatara, vol 8, no. 2, 1960)

Text from J Bronte Gatenby, 'The New Zealand Glow-Worm' (Tuatara, vol 8, no. 2, 1960)

Born 1970, Auckland, New Zealand
Lives and works in Wellington, New Zealand

Maddie Leach’s practice is project-based, conceptually driven and frequently involves research into the specifics of the site in which she is working. With her interest in the development of new thinking in relation to social, place-based and process-driven artwork,Leach’s early work held a central position in New Zealand’s relational aesthetics practice. While no longer overtly participatory, her work continues to explore ideas of spectatorship, expectation and strategies of cooperation in the production of art works. Leach’s recent projects often operate beyond the walls of the gallery and focus on constructing complex arrangements between space, time, place and audience.

Campaign to re-open tunnels under Auckland's Albert Park - 3 News

Selected exhibitions (group):

Between Memory and Trace, Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, Auckland, 2012; Peripheral Relations: Marcel Duchamp and New Zealand Art, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, 2012; The Obstinate Object, City Gallery Wellington, 2012; Iteration: Again, CAST, Tasmania, 2011; Collecting Contemporary, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, 2011; Reason and Rhyme, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, 2011; Close Encounters, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, 2010; One Day Sculpture, Wellington, 2008; Trans Versa, The South Project, Santiago, 200

Leach’s practice weaves narrative threads to connect propositions, actions, and materials. Her sculptural diffusions of matter and imagination challenge the idea of the ‘sculptural object’.

Jem Noble, artist, Bristol and Vancouver

The Most Difficult Problem

2013
Auckland Art Gallery

single-channel colour HD video projection, sound, text on newsprint
piano: Paul Lincke’s Glüwürmchenidyll performed and uploaded to YouTube by Markus Andreas Mayer
print design by Warren Olds
courtesy of artist


Venue
Tropical Thunder,2013

Tropical Thunder,2013

Tropical Thunder,2013

Tropical Thunder,2013

Tropical Thunder,2013

Tropical Thunder,2013

Born 1978, Perth, Australia Lives and works Sydney, Australia

Keg de Souza is an inter-disciplinary artist who works across mediums including video, artist’s books, printmaking, inflatable architecture, installation and drawing. The investigation of spatial politics is central to de Souza’s work, as she focuses not only on the built environment but also social space. De Souza is involved in collaborative artistic projects and groups, such as the SquatSpace artist collective, the collaborative duo You Are Here, the Network of Un-Collectable Artists and the Rizzeria printmaking collective. Under the name All Thumbs Press she publishes hand-bound books and zines featuring her illustrations and writing.

http://www.allthumbspress.net/

Selected exhibitions (solo):

Gonflables et amuse-bouches, Darling Foundry, Montréal, 2012 Living Under the Stars, Urban Art Projects, Brisbane, 2012; Rosen-tales; Women’s Studio Workshop, New York, 2012; Ramble Through The Rocks, Offsite: MCA, Sydney, 2011; Whatever Floats Your Boat, Cockatoo Island Studios to Balmain, Sydney, 2010. Selected exhibitions (group): Social Networking, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, 2012; Primavera 2011: Young Australian Artists, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2011; Trama, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, 2011; Designated Drivers, The Block Museum of Contemporary Art, Evanston, Illinois, 2011; The Right to The City (SquatSpace), Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney, 2011.

'Tropical Thunder ... investigates the commercialisation of traditional practices...’

Anna Davis, Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

Tropical Thunder

2013
Fresh Gallery Otara

plastic tablecloths, fans, bottled soft drink, risograph printed maps
dimensions variable
courtesy of the artist


Venue
Under Discussion, 2005 (video still)

Under Discussion, 2005 (video still)

Returning a Sound, 2004 (video still)

Returning a Sound, 2004 (video still)

(formed 1995) Live and work Puerto Rico

Jennifer Allora
Born 1974, Philadelphia, United States of America
James Calzadilla
Born 1971, Havana, Cuba

Collaborating since 1995, Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla have produced an experimental and interdisciplinary body of work, combining performance, sculpture, video and sound. Their Land Mark, 2001–ongoing, project focuses on what the artists describe as the ‘transitional geography’ of Vieques, an inhabited island municipality of Puerto Rico used by the U.S Navy as a weapons-testing range from 1941 to 2003.

http://www.lissongallery.com/#/artists/allora-and-calzadilla/

Interested in questions of social justice the artists set into motion a series of structural couples – inscription and erasure, presence and absence, appearance and disappearance – which link processes of mark-making with counter-memorial claims for rights and justice vis-à-vis specific sites.

Selected exhibitions (solo):

Stop, Repair, Prepare, MoMA, New York, 2010, and Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2008; Allora & Calzadilla, National Museum of Art, Oslo, 2009; Compass & How to Appear Invisible, Temporare Kunsthalle, Berlin, 2009; Never Mind That Noise you Heard, Stedekijk Museum, Amsterdam; Allora & Calzadilla, Kunsthalle Zürich, 2007; Clamor, Serpentine Gallery, London, 2007; Wake Up, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, 2007. Selected exhibition (group): 54th Venice Biennale, 2011.

Half Mast\Full Mast

2010
Auckland Art Gallery

dual-channel HD colour video projection
21:11min
courtesy of the artists and Lisson Gallery


Venue
Libellule bleue (Blue Dragonfly), 2009/2011

Libellule bleue (Blue Dragonfly), 2009/2011

Le salon (The Living Room), 2008/2011

Le salon (The Living Room), 2008/2011

Born 1971, Paris, France
Lives and works in Tangier, Morocco

Yto Barrada’s art reflects her experiences of living in Tangier, and the realities and struggles of life in a city undergoing rapid development and modernisation. Her photography captures the quiet dramas that play out when the diversity of local people and wildlife give way to the mono-cultural visions of planners and developers. Barrada’s work reveals a ramshackle kind of modernity and the existential issues of a society dominated by a desire to leave.

http://www.ytobarrada.com/

Selected exhibitions (solo):

Riffs, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, 2012; The Strait Project, Witte de With, Rotterdam, 2004; Selected exhibitions (group): I Decided Not to Save the World, Tate Modern, London, 2012; Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2012; 54th Venice Biennale, 2011; Hand Me Downs, film screening at MoMA, San Francisco, New York, 2011.

‘Barrada likens her multifaceted practice to a stack of Russian dolls, where one piece fits into another and another still.’

Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, independent writer and critic, Beirut.

Casa Barata

2001
Artspace

Artspace
c-type print
1000 x 1000 mm

Rue de la Liberté, Tanger

2000
Artspace

c-type print 1250 x 1250 mm

Tunnel – Ancien chantier d'étude de la liaison fixe Maroc-Espagne

2013
Artspace

(Tunnel – Disused Survey Site for a Morocco-Spain Tunnel), Tanger 2002
c-type print
800 x 800 mm

Briques (Bricks)

2003
Artspace

c-type print
1500 × 1500 mm

Le salon

2008
Artspace

(The Living Room)
c-type print
1500 x 1500 mm

Nuancier de roses

2008
Artspace

(Pink Color Chart)
c-type print
1250 x 1250 mm

Libellule bleue

2009
Artspace

(Blue Dragonfly)
c-type print
1250 x 1250 mm

 

Sidi Hssein, Beni Said, Rif

2009
Artspace

c-type print
1500 × 1500 mm

 

Restaurant, Villa Harris, fig. 2

2010
Artspace

c-type print
1250 x 1250 mm
courtesy of the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg


Venue
Model Home,2013

Model Home,2013

Born 1964, Tokyo, Japan 
Lives and works in Shanghai, China and Brussels, Belgium and Taipei, Taiwan.

Michael Lin is best known for his large-scale colourful floral paintings which cover the facades of building, interiors, windows and furniture. Using patterns from traditional Taiwanese textiles and decorative arts Lin’s work blurs the lines between art and craft, and raises issues around the continuity of traditional and domestic art forms. These playful insertions question the role of art in public space as Lin transgresses the line between the undervalued domestic realm and the dominant public one. Lin has collaborated with architects and local trades people to create environments and structures which encourage new ways of encountering art.

Selected exhibitions (solo):

Model Home, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, 2012; Michael Lin, Free Port No. 005, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2012; Hotel MARCO, Museum of Contemporary Art, Vigo, 2011; A Modest Veil, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2010; Michael Lin, OK Offenes Kulturhaus, Linz, 2007; Michael Lin, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, 2005. Selected exhibitions (group): 3rd SingaporeBiennale, 2011; Memories of the Future, Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, 2010; 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, 2009; Space For Your Future, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2007; Notre Histoire, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2006; 2nd Guangzhou Triennial, 2005.

‘... Lin goes out looking for ... anonymous patterns loaded with collective memories.’

Yuko Hasegawa, Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo

Model Home

2013
Auckland Art Gallery

For the 5th Auckland Triennial Michael Lin and Atelier Bow Wow collaborated with Professor Andrew Barrie from the University of Auckland to create a life-size paper document of worker housing element of the Model Home project, the sound and video artists were Nanli Lou and Ren Cheng. Andrew Barrie is a specialist in the Japanese technique of paper model building known as okoshi-ezu (folding drawing), and has adapted aspects of this technique for Model Home 2013.


Venues
test pattern [live set], 2008, photograph by Liz Hingley

test pattern [live set], 2008, photograph by Liz Hingley

A [for 6 silos]

A [for 6 silos]

Born 1966, Gifu, Japan
Lives and works in Paris, France

Ryoji Ikeda is one of Japan’s leading electronic composers and visual artists who successfully works across both visual and sonic media. His work involves elaborate orchestrations of sound, visuals and mathematical notions which explore the characteristics of sound and result in immersive live performances and installations.

http://www.ryojiikeda.com/

Alongside his musical pieces, Ikeda continues to work on long-term projects including test pattern, 2008–ongoing in which he developed a system that converts any type of data – text, sounds, photographs and movies – into barcode patterns and binary notation consisting of 0s and 1s.

Selected exhibitions:

Beam In Thine Own Eye, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, 2013, test pattern [no5], Carriageworks, Sydney, 2013; test pattern [ 100m version],Ruhr Trienniale, Duisburg, 2013; Ryoji Ikeda, DHC-ART, Montréal, 2012; The Transfinite, Park Avenue Armory, New York, 2011; datamatics, Museo de Arte, Bogota, Colombia. His performances datamatics [v.2], test pattern [live set] and superposition have been presented all over the world including Pompidou Centre, Paris, Tate Modern, London and Palazzo Grassi, Venice.

‘[Ikeda’s] projects ... are sensational, beautiful and challenging.’

Hou Hanru, Curator, 5th Auckland Triennial

A [for 6 silos]

2013
SIlo 6

site-specific six-channel sound installation
continuous loop
courtesy of the artist

test pattern [live set]

2013
Galatos

audiovisual concert
concept, composition: Ryoji Ikeda
computer graphics, programming: Tomonaga Tokuyama