21 Feb 2010
Christchurch-based artist Scott Flanagan is the recipient of the Arts Centre/Asia New Zealand Foundation Arts Residency Exchange for 2010.
This 3-month residency will take Scott to the National Museum of Contemporary Art’s Goyang Studio, situated in the outskirts of Seoul. Taking up residency in the Arts Centre for the New Zealand side of this residency exchange is Hee-Kyoung Bae, a current recipient of a long-term residency at the Goyang Studio.
The selection panel, comprising Arts Centre, Asia New Zealand Foundation and independent representatives, selected Scott from a number of strong expressions of interest from artists around New Zealand. Collectively the selection panel agreed that Scott is at a point in his artistic career where a residency such as this will have a significant impact and benefit upon his art practice.
Scott is thrilled to have been awarded this residency, which last year went to Dunedin-based, rising star of painting, Kushana Bush. Scott has exhibited around Christchurch and New Zealand. His sculptural installations are politically charged, full of references and layers of meaning for the viewer to unpack and are successful because the realisation of the artwork is strong enough to strike a balance with its conceptual complexity.
Scott’s work in his own words is “heavily conceptual and driven by Idea,” yet “methodical in its application, verging on craft when considering how much time is invested in the completion of a work…for a single installation.”
To date, during his exhibiting career, Scott has played with the notions of identity and agency, changing designation via adjustments to his name, creating a cabal of fictitious artists and most recently denying agency completely through a process of authoritarian excide. S.A. Flanagan, Alan Lacan, Ngo Tan Tsan, Taf Aston and Stan Long are just some of the pseudonyms used by the artist in the past.
Given the nature of Scott’s practice, the opportunity this residency allows him to focus solely on his art excites him and he is eager for the challenge of adapting his practice to another country and culture.
The Goyang Studio where Scott is heading contains 22 artist studios and hosts both long-term and short-term residencies for Korean and international artists. As well as exhibition and installation opportunities for resident artists, there are open studio events, curator visits and artist workshops and seminars taking place regularly, not to mention opportunities to meet with other artists.
Hee-Kyoung completed her Master of Fine Arts at the San Francisco Art Institute in 2007 in painting. She is keenly interested in both her physical and virtual experience of daily life. Her drawings and paintings are often self-portraits expressed not using her physical self, but rather her avatar, Discoid. Her process involves pouring paint over digital prints, peeling it away when dry, then painting upon the resultant uneven surface. The resulting artwork concerns the construction of self and identities both virtual and ‘real,’ a field of investigation very much reflective of our time.
Hee-Kyoung’s project for this residency has already begun. In Korea she has been at work painting and drawing images of Christchurch obtained through the internet and You Tube. She will bring these works with her to New Zealand but when here will paint Korea as viewed through the same Internet channels. An exhibition of both the Korean and New Zealand works will be held from May 25th in the Arts Centre for 2 weeks at the culmination of her residency. There will also be a celebratory event in the Arts Centre with both Hee-Kyoung and Scott on June 10th to celebrate the end of the residency exchange.
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