See View Sea View
Nic Foster – 'Art Practices Revealed'
Six day residency at The Suter Te Aratoi O Whakatu – 1-6
June 2004
Nic's Exhibition Statement
Making art about ones physical surroundings,
the immediate culture and the artists emotional capacity or
state of mind within those surroundings is the phenomena that
needs to be unraveled when an exhibition is being presented.
If an artist’s role is to possibly
reduce the communication of art to a pure reflection of social
and physical context then it must be assumed that the artist
is searching for a vernacular. This is precisely what is being
attempted in this series of works: the revelation of our physical,
psychological and cultural surroundings presented in the context
of a gallery. This communication of those collective phenomena
becomes evident when the artist is set up as the interlocutor
between observation, creation of media and the potential multitude
of interpretation.
The landscape recorded, the materials
of habitat used within that environment and the occupants of
the land form a tripartite that could be considered a recording
of a moment in time or indeed a true reflection of the ‘age’.
For example, this recording for posterity, with the domestic
and cultural offshoots has yielded not just an aesthetic but
a vision of how Nelson may be perceived. The focus is the exploration
of relationships between the subjects, their function and the
resulting representation. The juxtaposition of architectural
material, the landscape and electronic media showing anthropomorphic
culture is not an anecdotal incident but rather the palpable
inextricable unity of the seemingly disparate. I assert that
this subject matter is indeed miscible and facilitates direct,
immediate comparison between the articles presented and in turn
become clear as conduits to the differences and similarities
found within our surroundings.
When we as artists, observe, assimilate,
process and create we are potentially tracing the history of
a rapidly changing environment and it maybe that never before
has the locale of Nelson experienced such a rapid expansion,
physically and sociologically. History tells how things changed
and why, but only the people can express their opinions on the
change. Let the people speak, for it is time to let art provide
the reflection of the age.
Nelson artist Nic Foster, was invited
along with three other artists to feature in a programme called
'Art Practices Revealed' at the Suter
Te Aratoi O Whakatu, during the month of June. This event
was sponsored the design company formerly known as Naked-Shop.com,
promoting their new name change to The
Seven Design Secrets That Transform Businesses Into Brandsa.
The aim of this programme was to
show the Nelson public, how these artists worked. For one week,
they moved their studios into the large wooden floor gallery
and invited the public to come and see current works, their
working methods and to meet the artist themselves.
Nic Foster, a 2002 graduate of the
NMIT Bachelor of Visual Arts programme also gained a BFA (HONS)
from Ilam School of Art, Canterbury University in 2003.
As a friend of Nic’s, he asked
Paula to use her technical skills to help him with his video
installation during the week of his residency. This involved
Paula filming the required footage in the gallery during the
day, editing it at night on her computer and uploading it to
VHS to be played in the gallery for public viewing the following
day – for each day of the residency.
Paula explained the experience. ‘I
don’t think this is something that has been done in the
Suter before. We met some wonderful people during the week.
The public was superb and they really interacted well with what
was going on in the gallery.
The
Suter staff treated us as one of their own, inviting us
into the loading bay for their famous morning and afternoon
coffee – a lot of fun was had by all. John taught me all
about the gallery lighting and how to successfully light Nic’s
artworks for different effects.
If Nic and I couldn’t be found
on site, it was usually because we were in the Suter Park Café
eating their gorgeous food.’
If you are interested in talking
to Nic about this ongoing topic with him, or to enquire about
any of his paintings – contact him at seeview@paradise.net.nz
