infonews.co.nz
INDEX
ART

New book offers insight into New Zealand's contemporary art world

Thursday 30 July 2009, 12:55PM

By University of Canterbury

648 views

Inner Landscapes
Inner Landscapes Credit: University of Canterbury

CHRISTCHURCH

Fifteen of New Zealand’s leading artists talk about their lives, their work and what inspires them in the latest book published by Canterbury University Press.

Inner Landscapes: 15 New Zealand Artists with Canterbury Connections is a compilation of verbal self-portraits by artists who share a connection with the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts.

In a unique approach, each artist speaks directly to the reader through interviews with Sally Blundell. Each entry is accompanied by full-page colour reproductions of the artist’s work and striking photographic portraits of the artists in their studios by award-winning photographer Diederik van Heyningen.

An essay by Justin Paton, Senior Curator at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, places the artists and their work in a wider context of art and place.

The book and an accompanying exhibition of the same name are the result of a project undertaken by the Canterbury Arts and Heritage Trust.

Inner Landscapes Project Director and Chair of the trust, Lorraine North, said the project stemmed from a desire to raise awareness of the number of acclaimed New Zealand artists who were connected with the Ilam School of Fine Arts.

“Inner Landscapes also provides a personal and intimate view of art works from the artist’s perspective. It reconnects the art work viewed in the impersonal gallery space with the real, every day life of the artist as an individual.”

She said readers would gain a unique insight into contemporary art practice in New Zealand as well as an understanding of how the art work, the studio space in which it is made, and the artist interrelate.

The artists featured in the book work in a variety of media and include painters, sculptors, digital artists and a printmaker. They are Hannah and Aaron Beehre, Barry Cleavin, Neil Dawson, Andrew Drummond, Tony de Lautour, Darryn George, Lonnie Hutchinson, Joanna Langford, Julia Morison, Don Peebles, Seraphine Pick, Phil Price, Eion Stevens, Philip Trusttum and Ronnie van Hout.
Inner Landscapes: 15 New Zealand Artists with Canterbury Connections was launched at the SOFA Gallery on 30 July.

The accompanying exhibition, Inner Landscapes, is being held at the SOFA Gallery, 31 July – 30 August, as part of the Christchurch Arts Festival.

Inner Landscapes: 15 New Zealand Artists with Canterbury Connections, a project of the Canterbury Arts and Heritage Trust, interviews by Sally Blundell, photographs by Diederik van Heyningen, published by Canterbury University Press, August 2009, RRP NZ $59.95, Hardback, 120pp, ISBN 978-1-877257-85-8.