Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

Up River Blues is a dreamlike series of vignettes featuring the region surrounding the Whanganui River Valley. The Whanganui River is New Zealand?s longest navigable river with rich historical significance. The abandoned Shangri-la commune of Ahu Ahu Ohu, on the Ahu ahu tributary of the Whanganui is the central feature of this video. In 1974 the NZ government found an ?Ohu Scheme? on public land to establish communes - ?intentional communities?. Most failed. This was one of the longest lasting "Ohus". A sense of apocalyptic foreboding was created through special effects including 3D animations of a stranded Russian submarine rusting on a steep inland hill and black helicopters flying over Ahu Ahu Ohu. (In fact, helicopters are a reality in this region in the government?s search for marijuana crops; the hills are indeed former sea beds.) In combining apocalyptic paranoia with irreverent whimsy the video ends with a tree disappearing into its shadow and a crop duster reversing into a cloud of dust.

Brit Bunkley, emigrated with his family in 1995 from New York City to take up a teaching position to New Zealand. Bunkley`s art practice during his 16 years in New York included building numerous commissions while also receiving several grants and fellowships including a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship grant, New York State artist Fellowship, and the Rome Prize Fellowship. (see: www.britbunkley.com) Bunkley?s work has appeared in many solo and group shows internationally and is in many public and private collections in New Zealand and the USA. Exhibitions included St@rt up: New Interactive Media and Animation at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa and SIGGRAPH 2003 , 2004 and 2006. In addition he showed artwork at Ciberart-Bilbao 2004 Festival and art show, Bilbao, Spain, Prog:ME the1st Festival of Electronic Media of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil; Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin/Caracas, 2005 in Paris and 2006 in Venezuela. Bunkley?s sculpture has been commissioned by the NY MTA, the Minnesota Percent for Art program, Connells? Bay, NZ and several other public and private agencies (His work is featured in the Along the Way: MTA Arts for Transit, Celebrating 20 Years of Public Art, by the Monacelli Press; 2006 and The Art of Placemaking: Interpreting Community Through Public Art and Urban Design, 2008, by Ronald Lee Fleming.) Recent shows include FILE RIO 2007 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and FILE - Electronic Language International Festival, in Sao Paolo: Brazil, March 2008; Urban Screens Melbourne 08; Federal Square, Melbourne, Australia; Eform; Beijing - Today Art Museum; Shanghai - Duolun Museum of Modern Art; Chongqing - Jinse Gallery; Migration, Völklingen, Germany; as well as solo shows at the NZ Film Archive Gallery ?A Slow Train a? Comin?? and at Mary Newton Gallery - both in Wellington, New Zealand. In 2008 he co-curated and participated in the show Terrible Beauties, at City Art Room in Auckland. File 10 Nurbs Proto 4KT, Sao Paolo. In 2010 he co-curated and participated in the exhibition Hybrids at Auckland?s MIC gallery; exhibited at the National Contemporary Art Award at the Waikato Museum of Art, NZ; Insideout, Sydney; A Light at the End of the Tunnel, Scope Basel, Basel; From the Earth to Space: Exobiology & Biodiversity, Cité des sciences et de l`Industrie, Paris; and he recently had a solo show at the Mary Newton Gallery in Wellington. He will exhibit video at the E4C: Electronic Gallery; Seattle.