Artspace announces the recipients of the 2014/15 Chartwell Stairwell commission
Artspace is pleased to announce that the 2014/15 Chartwell Stairwell Commission has been awarded to individual projects
by Julian Priest and Daphne Simons. The commissioning panel composed of Sue Gardiner and Rob Gardiner from The Chartwell
Trust, artist Alex Monteith, and Artspace’s curatorial team Caterina Riva and Amelia Hitchcock, was impressed by the
diversity and quality of the submissions received, and extend thanks to all those who applied.
Julian Priest (1968, United Kingdom) is a Whanganui based artist who works with participatory and technological forms. His recent
work explores relationships to different infrastructures, including time, energy, security, health and communications;
he is currently working on a series of works on gravitation. For the Chartwell Stairwell Priest will work with the
architecture of the site to create an interactive piece, transforming the staircase into a musical instrument, activated
by visitors to the gallery.
Daphne Simons (1991, The Netherlands) is an Auckland based artist who graduated from Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design in 2013.
She presses her work through idiosyncratic problem solving exercises; although diverse in subject and media, her
approach is consistently improvisational.
Through a sculptural intervention which will travel the outside of the Artspace building, Simons will bring a different
perspective to street level spectators.
“Priest and Simons proposals stood out from the rest as poetic interventions which thoroughly considered the nature of
the stairwell in their design” says Hitchcock.
Both artists will be working toward the realisation of their projects, to be launched in May 2014.
The stairwell has been used in the past for projects including “Music for the stairwell” (2003 – 2004) and Jeena Shin’s
work Artspace Stairwell project, which unfolded over three years (2009 – 2011).
Partnering with The Chartwell Trust in early 2013, Artspace launched the inaugural project by artist Dorota Broda, which
evolved in time and space over a 12 month period.
ENDS