Catalogue > At random

A young man’s letter to his mother, sent home to New Zealand from England during the First World War. London’s Royal Parks are the picturesque setting for revisiting empire, tourisms and longing in this hybrid film that features the artist’s grandfather’s photography and writings from his enlisted travels.

Gavin Hipkins is an Auckland-based artist. He holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He is currently Associate Professor in Fine Arts at Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. His work explores the nation state, particularly in colonised countries in an era of re-imagined communities and ideas of social and political utopia. His recent moving image works engage film as a cinematic art that blurs conventional genres of essay film, documentary and experimental narrative structures. Hipkins has exhibited extensively in international exhibitions and film festivals including: 16th 25FPS International Experimental Film and Video Festival, International Competition, Zagreb (2020); Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin (2020); 33rd Stuttgarter Filmwinter: Festival for Expanded Media, Stuttgart (2020); New Zealand International Film Festival (2020); Videoex, Zurich (2019); The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2018); International Film Festival Rotterdam (2018, 2015); International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, International Competition (2017, 2016); The Jewish Museum, New York (2015); Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), New York (2014); Edinburgh Art Festival (2014).