MEDIA RELEASE – Friday 1 September
Bring your togs and towel and prepare for a truly immersive experience at tonight’s opening of The Walters Prize 2006 at
Auckland Art Gallery.
A portable spa pool surrounded by whale sounds and psychedelic film sequences is the centrepiece of Wet Social Sculpture
by Stella Brennan.
The Auckland artist is one of four finalists for the $50,000 Walters Prize New Zealand’s richest and most prestigious
contemporary art award. The winner will be announced on 3 October by international judge Carolyn ChristovBakargiev.
Brennan blends the backyard with the transcendent to offer up the spa pool as a symbol of suburban luxury and wellpadded
alienation “ the leisure class in a capsule, cocktail in hand”.
Napierborn artist Phil Dadson camped out in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica with video and sound equipment to record Polar
Projects his unique interpretation of a remote and surreal region that looks and sounds like no other.
Ashburtonborn Peter Robinson’s work has always been a challenge to good taste. His sculptures represent The Humours
blood, bile and phlegm. In traditional medicine these fluids were thought to permeate the body, influencing health and
personality.
New Plymouthborn artist Francis Upritchard tampers with history in Doomed, Doomed, All Doomed. Cast off items like old
hockey sticks gain new life with eyes and crooked teeth.
Thrift store pots are remade into urns as Upritchard reveals the fear behind our efforts to hold on to the past.
Media are invited for drinks from 6pm in the Art Lounge at Auckland Art Gallery’s NEW gallery, corner Lorne and
Wellesley St, Auckland. Speeches are at 6.30pm. The exhibition will open upstairs from 7pm to 9pm.
The Walters Prize 2006
2 September to 19 November
Auckland Art Gallery NEW gallery, Cnr Lorne and Wellesley Sts
Admission: Adult $7, Concession $5, Children under 5 free.
ENDS
http://www.aucklandartgallery.govt.nz/