Chris Hargreaves: The Halo Project

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

Auckland artist Chris Hargreaves presents The Halo Project installed at Uxbridge Creative Centre as part of the Manukau Festival of Arts from 15th October - 31st October, 2010.

The dawn chorus is silenced by jet engines... metronomic steps are interrupted by an authoritarian loudspeaker... ebbing waves are broken by playful children...

Artist Chris Hargreaves creates a stunning collision of the sounds of the Manukau region with his sculptural new media exhibition at Uxbridge Centre of Arts as part of the Manukau Festival of Arts 2010.

The Halo Project consists of a large ring or Halo, suspended in midair supporting a series of internal speakers, each playing an edited field recoding form a variety of geographic regions throughout Manukau. Viewers are confronted by the discordant soundtracks playing the sometimes forgotten aspects of our environment as people involve themselves with the routine of busy day to day life.

The sculpture offers the viewer a chance to pause and reflect and to trigger nostalgic thoughts and memories through music, sound and audio reproduction.

The Halo Project promotes discussion and debate through discourse in contemporary art practice particularly in sculpture and new media within a New Zealand and local Manukau City context by engaging a diverse audience and encouraging interaction with contemporary art practice through familiarity, memories and popular culture.

Chris Hargreaves was born in 1981. In 2003 he graduated from UNITEC with a Bachelor of Design (Sculpture) (Hons). He lives and works in Auckland and regularly exhibits throughout New Zealand.

Notable projects include:
Splore Festival 2010; Sculpture in the Gardens, Auckland Botanical Gardens, 2009 -10; Sculpture on the Gulf, Waiheke Island, 2009; a 2008 commission for Brick Bay Sculpture Park, Matakana; Transpositional Migration (2005–06), Te Tuhi, Auckland; Sea/Soar (2004), Blue Oyster Gallery, Dunedin; Follow the White Rabbit (2003), ARTSPACE, Auckland.

Hargreaves is interested in the way the interpretation of the familiar object can be changed when it is recontextualised, in notions of truth and nostalgia, in the way people interact with and build relationships for material objects, and how this can alter what we perceive to be real or genuine.

Manukau Arts Festival:
15th October - 31st October. 2010
Official Opening 26th October 6:30pm
Uxbridge Centre for Arts
Artist Talk
Saturday, 30th October 11am

ENDS

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