This newly introduced Digital Screens initiative for projections of international photography and New Zealand work is a key part of our Festival as we create an accessible selection of free photography experiences exhibitions by well-known NZ photographers.
In Gallery 4
Hormoz - “Ajutila”
Hormoz is a French photographer and director. His major works have been shown in many magazines, festivals, and galleries. He mainly explores surrealistic, nightclubbing and social issues.
“Ajutila”: Cindy meets photographer Hormoz at his exhibition “Je vis” (“I realize”), a project conceived with Dal, a disabled person. Cindy is of Malian origin, Muslim culture and born disabled. She wants to tell her personal story. Cindy and Hormoz imagine a photographic series in which Cindy seeks to undramatize the image of sexuality linked to disability and African cultures.
Rochelle Wong - Seven days in Afghanistan
Rochelle travelled solo to Afghanistan last year. Even though she only scratched the surface, she found the war confronting, the landscape breathtaking, and the people warm. While travelling around the country, she talked to people on roadsides, drank tea in people’s homes, spent time in workplaces and got invited to a wedding. Locals would talk about their daily lives but also about life before the war. Rochelle’s photos present a small snapshot of the continuum of everyday life in Afghanistan.
Lara Gilks (NZ) - offbeat fairytales
These images draw from two series – ‘my backyard theatre’ and ‘white lies’. This body of work disturbs the everyday reality – that allows for an escape from reality into the playful but eerie world of the fairytale.
The characters bring an incongruous theatre to the landscape, yet they are defiant and stand their ground. The masks allow the actors to see but not be seen – a costume that allows one to look out but keeps the world from looking in.
A collaboration by Denise Batchelor and Heather Randerson - Timatanga o te Whenua tu ora
The project kaupapa is an artistic exploration of the environmental challenges currently facing our communities. The project raises urgent ecological questions. How do we care for the Ngahere, waters, and dunes in our local environment, whilst being mindful of the global challenges?
Timatanga o te Whenua tupu ora ll is an artists’ impression of the earth’s elemental transition to some form of resurrection. In an optimistic sense it is a visual metaphor for the earth’s innate ability through evolution to renew and regenerate beyond any human intervention, knowledge or control.
In Gallery 5
Videre Collective - Marty Walker, Simon Ross, Jonathan Armstrong, Simone Cheung, Antoine Veling, Tony Reddrop, Paula Heelan, Jim Griffiths, Peter Waters, Michael Jolliffe
Named for the Latin ‘to see’, Videre Collective is composed of ten antipodean photographers.
“Formed four years ago, we’re spread across urban, suburban and rural Australia and New Zealand. We came together through friendship, awareness and admiration of each others’ photography to create opportunities to show our work. While there is to a degree a common thread of work in the documentary realm, our photography is as varied as our membership, something that we feel reflects the part of the world we are from.”
Unseen Caves of the West
Unseen Caves of the West pays homage to the professional and amateur New Zealand photographers of early Auckland and the early landscape they captured. The theme of Caves is explored for the unknowing and unseen mysteries held within their natural underground chamber.
Yuko Nakajima - Trinity Place, community and spirituality
The trinity usually means a father (Father God), a son (christ the son of the god) and holy ghost (holy spirit / holy god). These were rephrased with place, community, and spirituality and threw in this work. I have interwoven and overlapped the various distances that exist between people with this work.