Sriwhana Spong is the 2018 Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Aotearoa New Zealand Artist in Residence

The residency is supported by Creative New Zealand Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa.

While in New Plymouth, Spong will be working on the exhibition a hook but no fish, which continues her research into the Lingua Ignota, a language ‘received' by 12th century German mystic Hildegard von Bingen during her 39 years in the Disibodenberg monastery. 

Central to the exhibition is a new film, with a score by Claire Duncan, partially shot at the ruins of the monastery near Frankfurt where Hildegard was interned as a child with two other women.

a hook but no fish (Saturday 12 May – Sunday 22 July) is Spong’s first New Zealand solo museum exhibition. It includes work made for London’s Pump House Gallery earlier this year.

Govett-Brewster Art Gallery Director Simon Rees says the three-month Creative New Zealand funded residency programme has been an integral part of the life of the Govett-Brewster and the cultural life of New Plymouth since 1992. It connects the gallery and its programmes to the leading edge of New Zealand artists and has provided an important opportunity for a number of expatriated artists to make major exhibitions in New Zealand.

“Sriwhana is one such artist whose work is pushing boundaries of cultural translation internationally who can test the relevance of her work in Aotearoa,” says Simon.

Past Govett-Brewster artists in residence include Mladen Bizumic, Ruth Buchanan, Dane Mitchell and Frances Upritchard.

The artist is invited to engage with the Taranaki artist community during the time spent in New Plymouth and produce new art work for exhibition.

Exhibition curator Tendai John Mutambu: “It’s a pleasure to work with Sriwhana, an artist whose work I have been following for several years”.

In the exhibition Spong presents three musical instruments as part of an evolving personal orchestra. Influenced by the Gamelan tradition of her Balinese heritage, this ever-expanding work explores how sound can be an indicator of place, history and custom. In a series of ‘sigils’ – painted symbols considered to have magical powers – she spells out the name of a critically endangered Balinese bird: the Rothschild’s mynah. a hook but no fish weaves together painting, sculpture, and film to consider the relationship between the body and language informed by her current research into the writings of medieval women mystics.

Sriwhana Spong: “I’m looking forward to unfolding a hook but no fish across the incredible spaces of the Govett-Brewster, a gallery whose programme I have admired since I first visited as a student while studying at Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland”.

In association with the exhibition Sriwhana Spong: a hook but no fish, the Govett-Brewster screens two films selected in collaboration with the artist: having-seen-snake (Sriwhana Spong, 2016) and The Scientist’s Search, an Expedition to the Amazon (Maira Duarte, 2014). The films screen in the Len Lye Centre Cinema in May, June and July.

Sriwhana Spong will be in conversation with curator Tendai John Mutambu on the opening Saturday 12 May and give a performance on Sunday 13 May.

About Sriwhana Spong

Sriwhana Spong is a New Zealand artist based in London. She received an MFA in 2015 from the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam. Recent solo and group exhibitions include: Im Wintergarten, daadgalerie, Berlin (2016); Oceanic Feeling with Maria Taniguchi, ICA, Singapore (2016); having-seen-snake, Michael Lett, Auckland (2017); The Score, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne (2017), If These Stones Could Sing, KADIST, San Francisco (2018), a hook but no fish, Pump House Gallery, London (2018).

ENDS

  
Public programme:

Exhibition film
Sriwhana Spong: a hook but no fish  
Sat 12, 19, 26 May | 2 pm
Sun 13, 20, 27 May | 2 pm
Len Lye Centre Cinema
Free | Donations appreciated
In association with the exhibition Sriwhana Spong: a hook but no fish, the Govett-Brewster screens two films selected in collaboration with the artist: having-seen-snake (Sriwhana Spong, 2017) and The Scientist’s Search, an Expedition to the Amazon (Maira Duarte, 2014).
Running time 37 min.

Exhibition talk
Sriwhana Spong: a hook but no fish
Sat 12 May I 3 pm
Free | Donations appreciated
Join artist Sriwhana Spong and exhibition curator Tendai John Mutambu in conversation on the occasion of Spong’s first New Zealand museum solo exhibition.

Performance
Sriwhana Spong
Sun 13 May I 3 pm
Free | Donations appreciated
Exhibiting artist Sriwhana Spong presents a performance on the occasion of her first New Zealand museum solo exhibition, a hook but no fish.

Exhibition film
Sriwhana Spong: a hook but no fish
Sat 2, 9, 16, 23 Jun | 2 pm
Sun 3, 10, 17, 24 Jun | 2 pm
Len Lye Centre Cinema
Free | Donations appreciated
In association with the exhibition Sriwhana Spong: a hook but no fish, the Govett-Brewster screens two films selected in collaboration with the artist: having-seen-snake (Sriwhana Spong, 2017) and The Scientist’s Search, an Expedition to the Amazon (Maira Duarte, 2014).

Sriwhana Spong: a hook but no fish  
Sat 7, 15, 23, 28 Jul | 2 pm
Sun 8, 16, 24, 29 Jul | 2 pm
Len Lye Centre Cinema
Free | Donations appreciated
In association with the exhibition Sriwhana Spong: a hook but no fish, the Govett-Brewster screens two films selected in collaboration with the artist: having-seen-snake (Sriwhana Spong, 2017) and The Scientist’s Search, an Expedition to the Amazon (Maira Duarte, 2014).
Running time 37 min.

Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre’s full programme ‘happening’ with exhibitions, talks, tours, cinema screenings and art making, Apr - Jul, is here to peruse or download: www.govettbrewster.com
 

For high-res images or further enquiries please contact: 
Kelly Loney
Communications Adviser
M: +27 839 2660
E: kellyl@govettbrewster.com
W: www.govettbrewster.com

About Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre
The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery is New Zealand’s contemporary art museum in the coastal city of New Plymouth, Taranaki on the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. Since opening in 1970, the Gallery has dedicated itself to innovative programming, focused collection development and audience engagement. It has earned a strong reputation nationally and internationally for its global vision and special commitment to contemporary art of the Pacific Rim. The Govett-Brewster is also home to the collection and archive of the seminal modernist filmmaker and kinetic sculptor Len Lye (1901–1980).

The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery was founded with a gift to the city of New Plymouth, from one of its greatest ‘Friends’ Monica Brewster (née Govett). A globetrotter before the age of air travel, Monica Brewster envisaged an art museum for her hometown that would be an international beacon for the art and ideas of the current day – the sort she had become familiar with on her global travels.

The Govett-Brewster continues in the legacy of Monica Brewster by taking on and presenting the most provocative, audacious and confident works of art in the global arts landscape.

The greatly expanded museum re-launched on 25 July 2015 with the addition of the Len Lye Centre. With its curved exterior walls of mirror-like stainless steel, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre is the country’s first example of destination architecture linked to contemporary art.

This latest addition to the Govett-Brewster – the Len Lye Centre – is New Zealand’s first institution dedicated to a single artist, the pioneering filmmaker and kinetic sculptor, Len Lye.

In 1964 Len Lye said “Great architecture goes fifty-fifty with great art”.

The Len Lye Centre building, adjoining the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, is an example of innovative thinking in both engineering and architecture. The architects are Patterson Associates, one of New Zealand’s most internationally recognised architectural firms.

The new Len Lye Centre features Lye’s work in kinetic sculpture, film, painting, drawing, photography, batik and writing, as well as related work by contemporary and historical artists.

It also houses a state-of-the-art 62-seat cinema – a welcoming environment for audiences to experience Len Lye’s films, local and international cinema, cult, arthouse and experimental films, and regular festival programming.

The Govett-Brewster Art Gallery building in New Plymouth closed in April 2013 for earthquake strengthening, compliance, upgrades and construction of the Len Lye Centre.

The Govett-Brewster/Len Lye Centre is owned and operated by the New Plymouth District Council, which governs the museum under the terms of the founding Monica Brewster Trust Deed and through the Len Lye Committee of Council which formally manages the relationship between Council, Len Lye Foundation, and Govett-Brewster staff.

About Len Lye
A visionary New Zealander, an inspirational artist, a pioneer of film; Len Lye is one of the most important and influential artists to emerge from New Zealand.

Len Lye was an experimental filmmaker, poet, painter, kinetic sculptor and creative visionary ahead of his time. Most of his works were so revolutionary that technology literally had to catch up to him – meaning much of Lye’s work was not realised in his own lifetime.

Lye’s iconic 45-metre kinetic sculpture Wind Wand sways gently on New Plymouth's Coastal Walkway. The Wind Wand that glows red at night, is the first large outdoor sculpture to be built posthumously from his plans and drawings.

In 1977 Lye returned to his homeland to oversee the first New Zealand exhibition of his work at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery. He called it the “swingiest art gallery of the antipodes”.

Shortly before his death in 1980, Lye and his supporters established the Len Lye Foundation, to which he gifted his entire collection. His collection was gifted on the condition that a suitable and permanent home be created in which his works could be fully realised.