OPENING EXHIBITION ANTIPODEANS NEW ZEALAND 7TH MAY

EXHIBITION ARTIST BOOKS

ANTIPODEANS

MARSDEN BOOKSHOP

KARORI, WELLINGTON NEW ZEALAND

This is a journey which I have decided to share with my friends Louisa Holecz, Sylvia Pennings, José Ramón Magallón and Prado Rodríguez. Their books travelled with me inside my suitcase all the way from Zaragoza to Wellington. There is a fascination with New Zealand seen from afar, especially here in Spain, where I am often reminded that it is the exact antipodes of Aragón. This romantic notion that we are connected through an imaginary line crossing through to the other side of the world has perhaps given meaning to my being here. 

This has also been a special opportunity to collaborate with my sister Anna in her fantastic book shop, Marsden Books. Anna has been a support to me all throughout my career as an artist and through Anna I have managed to maintain contact and show my work in New Zealand. Anna recently collaborated with me for a Video Performance in Orbita, Zaragoza, The Bee Line. This was about our distant communication through internet. All the artists who participate in this show were present at that performance, so now it is a round circle in communication with our exhibition in Anna´s bookshop.

There are return journeys, round trips, one way with no return date, long or short distance, migratory, epic and definitive, the last journey, microscopic journeys, systematic trips by organisms and fluids, seeds and spores.

Joining the infinite list of journeys with these books, we have taken on a symbolic journey of contact between cultures and we search for a link between two worlds which are directly opposite in the antipodes. We are “antipodeans”.

He decidido compartir este viaje de vuelta a Nueva Zelanda con mis amigos Louisa Holecz, Sylvia Pennings, José Ramón Magallón y Prado Rodriguez. Sus libros viajaron conmigo dentro de mi maleta, todo el viaje desde Zaragoza a Wellington. Hay una fascinación con Nueva Zelanda visto desde lejos, sobre todo desde España, donde continuamente me recuerdan que es el punto exacto de los antipodes con Aragón. Este noción romántico  que estamos conectados a través de una linea imaginaria atravesando el mundo quizás da más sentido a mi permanencia aquí.  

Ha sido una oportunidad especial colaborar con mi hermana Anna en su fantástica libreria, Marsden Bookshop. Anna ha sido un apoyo mio a lo largo de todo mi carera de artista y a través de Anna he conseguido mantener contacto y enseñar  mi obra en Nueva Zelanda. Recientemente Anna colaboró conmigo para un performance y vídeo en Órbita, Zaragoza, The Bee Line. Se trato sobre nuestro comunicación a distancia a través de internet. Los artistas quienes participan en este muestra estaban todos presentes en el performance, así que ahora trazamos un circulo de comunicación con nuestra exposición en la libreria de Anna.  

Hay viajes de ida y vuelta, redondos, abiertos, sin fecha de retorno, largos o de corta distancia, migratorios, épicos y definitivos, el último viaje, viajes microscópicos, sistemáticos de organismos y fluidos, semillas y esporas. Uniéndonos a la lista infinita de viajes, con estos libros  hemos emprendido un viaje simbólico de contacto entre culturas, buscando en la lejanía el enlace entre dos mundos directamente opuestos en las antípodas.  Somos “antipodeans”.

marsdenbooks.co.nz

https://m.facebook.com/marsdenbooks/

Catalogue: ISSUU.COM

Longing: Watercolour on paper, wood and string

15 x 15 x 1cm, Extension 148cm

LONGING

“When I was a child the civilization of the West began at a very precise point: the glittering silver-painted dome of the Post Office at the top of College Hill…”

(Cuando era un niño la civilización del oeste empezó en un punto muy preciso: la cúpula brillante y plateado de la Oficina de Correos calle arriba de College Hill…)

Vincent O´Sullivan

I longed to be on this side of the world; “this” being here, Spain, Aragón. I longed for something different, beyond our shores, “our shores” being New Zealand and “I” being me, a New Zealander, born and bred, raised down South in Dunedin, Otago.

Now that I live here and “here” means Spain, I long to be back on the other side of the world in New Zealand which is now the antipodes of where I am.

My longing has taken me back to the mountains I once painted when that was all I knew. Those mountains, The Southern Alps, are the source of my nostalgic trip, which has taken the form of this book.

Yo deseaba estar en este lado del mundo; cuando digo “este lado” me refiero a España, Aragón. Deseaba algo distinto, lejos de nuestras orillas, siendo “nuestras orillas” Nueva Zelanda y el “yo” de entonces se refería a mí como neozelandesa, nacida y educada  allí en el sur, en Dunedin, Otago.

Ahora que vivo aquí, y “aquí” significa España, deseo estar en el otro lado del mundo, en Nueva Zelanda, en las antípodas de donde estoy ahora.

Mis deseos me han devuelto a las montañas que una vez pintaba cuando era lo único que conocía. Esas montañas, The Southern Alps, son la fuente de mi viaje de nostalgia y han tomado su forma en este libro objeto.

BAREHANDED VIDEO

This is the video "Barehanded" which I created as part of a series of work inspired by Sylvia Plaths poetry. I was fascinated by the metaphor of the bare-hands which she used to represent her feelings of exposure and vulnerability in the face of her surrounding community. She felt at once tied, exposed and threatened. The bees are that world she lived in, Her hands are handling the combs without gloves. 

Out of this work I created the painting also called Barehanded, in which the finger prints all together create the image of the queen bee.

SHORTENED VERSION OF THE VIDEO: DISTANTLY CONNECTED

This is the shortened version of the Video I made in June 2016, in which I drew my mother while she read poetry to me and we talked on Skype.

The original video is 10 minutes long, but in the shortened video I have cut back to the essence of the video, by concentrating on the parts where she read the poem by Charles Brasch "The Islands".

In these works, where I am drawing on top of the computer or television screen or projecting the image direct onto a wall I trace around the outline of the figure in movement. I do not wish to draw a realistic portrait of the subject. Instead I wish to capture the essence of the person through line and movement. The lines I draw are almost like a form of writing, as they are drawn continuously without lifting the marker from the surface. The long continuous line moves in response to the words I am hearing. 

These video pieces all grew out of a series of drawing based on the bee, in which I started to draw with a line which I imagined to be like the line a bee would trace as it flies from flower to flower through the air. 

Edited Video of the Performance "The Bee Line"

https://youtu.be/MioAA9dFzM8

This is the link for an edited video of the Performance I did in Órbita, Zaragoza in October 2016.