June-July 2024. In public art events in New York over the summer months, HALO is activated above the iconic skyline of the Financial District in Manhattan Island. Presented in New York City in conjunction with the international Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art NYC 2024 program, the virtual monument is geolocated and presented by the artist in happenings at prime public spaces, bringing a new lens to the iconic vistas of the Island city. Experienced as an otherworldly entity, the giant stone circle heightens focus on the future in a city that never sleeps.

8 June 2024. Presenting three new exquisite glass and stone sculptures - Narcissus, Echo and Symposium, artist Gill Gatfield shares insights into these ephemeral abstract forms and their embodied ideas. The talk will reveal the sculptures' relationship with abstract, classical and feminist bodies and philosophies, and their resonance with mysticism, love psychologies, and AI. On view in the first ever survey show of Aotearoa abstract women artists, at NorthART Gallery Auckland NZ until 6 July. Public Programme and Artist Talks supported by Chartwell Trust - Virginia Leonard Artist Talk 2:00pm | Gill Gatfield Artist Talk 2:30pm.

2024. An 8 month research residency with FOREIGN OBJEKT, an international network and ecosystem, explores art and philosophy in the AI era. The research group of artists, philosophers, scientists and engineers develop projects expanding on the framework "Deep Objekt [0]: Agency at the Computational Turn" developed by philosopher Reza Negarestani and residency curator Sepideh Majidi. Founded in 2019, Foreign Objekt promotes collaborative discourse on the transformative potential and future for human and artificial intelligence. Formulating a new rubric: RADICAL MONUMENTS, Gill Gatfield’s residency project investigates the transmission of intelligence between human and the AI-AR monuments and implications for diverse, dynamic and democratic public space.  

Resident research and artistic projects are presented at:

▪️Space Gallery Berkley USA
▪️New Art City Virtual
▪️Foreign Objekt Website
▪️Posthuman Art Laboratory Website

Deep Objekt 2024 residency advisors are:  Sepideh Majidi, Maure Coise, Reza Negarestani, Marek Poliks, Roberto Alonso Trillo, Keith Tilford, Borna Radnik, and invited guests.

May 2024. At the opening plenary of the First International Scientific & Practical Conference "European Future", Gill Gatfield presents ‘A Philosophy of Harmony in Abstraction – Sculpting Virtual and Real Worlds’.  The interdisciplinary forum hosted by Kherson National Technical University is convened by philosopher Professor Halyna Berehova for philosophers, scientists, and scholars from Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, France, Canada and USA to examine contemporary philosophical, educational and communication problems across disciplines, including politics, technology and AI. Gill Gatfield's presentation expands on her 2022 project UNITY in the 59th Venice Biennale collateral exhibition 'Personal Structures' proposing ephemeral and virtual aesthetics as sites of consciousness and agency.

7 May-6 July 2024. ABSTRAXT ABSTRAXT, a survey show of Aotearoa New Zealand women artists at NorthArt Gallery NZ, features three new sculptures by Gill Gatfield – Narcissus, Echo and Symposium. Curated by director Jessica Pearless, this first ever large scale exhibition of contemporary abstraction by NZ women artists charts a constellation of the field today, examining the artistic processes and methodologies employed by leading and emerging artists across cultural and aesthetic perspectives. Exhibition catalogue includes essays by Jesssica Pearless and Nina Dyer.

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April 2024. Milan based Jenna Grace, art researcher and historian at Fondazione Prada, reflects on Native Tongue XR, Simone Leigh’s US Pavilion and Maria Eichhorn’s German Pavilion, projects changing the notion of monument at the 59th Venice Biennale:
 
"Amongst all the speculation and all the strangers everywhere for the opening of the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Cecilia Alemani’s boldly curated 59th reliquary and its wave of concurrent collateral events still resonate. In 2022, the surreal The Milk Of Dreams theme stirred connections with international movements interrogating colonial monuments. Not all projects had the sentient scale of Simone Leigh’s literal wrapping and reinvention of the US Pavilion to highlight histories of presidential slavery. Two of the most insightful reinventions of monuments didn’t really exist at all. …"
 

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April 2024. New Zealand's premier event for contemporary art amplifies public art in DON’T SCROLL PAST: The Importance of Public Art in a Modern World⁠: "In a transient, distributed and screen-mediated world, art in public spaces takes on an urgent necessary role in rehabilitating, defining and elevating spaces to encourage discourse. As part of our ‘Let's Talk Art' Programme, a panel of leading artists, experts and cultural thinkers, convened by public art director Deborah McCormick, discuss the philosophies, strategies and modes of public art."⁠ Speakers: Natasha Smith, Director Curatorial UAP | Gill Gatfield, Artist Gatfield Studio | Tavakefai`ana Sēmisi Fetokai Potauaine, Sculptor & Lecturer | Rachael Rakena (Ngai Tahu, Nga Puhi), Artist & Academic | Andrew Paul Wood, NZ Art & Cultural Critic.

April 2024. Wellington Sculpture Trust shares big news from the capital: "Gone but not forgotten! HALO, a virtual reality sculpture by artist @gillgatfield, and commissioned by the Wellington Sculpture Trust for its 40th Anniversary celebrations, has left an indelible mark and had record breaking engagement by the public. Over 24,500 HALOs were created by Wellingtonians and visitors to the city from September 2023 to March 2024 – a big number by NZ and international standards. This celestial vision is already missed. People are asking where has HALO gone and when is it coming back!" HALO was presented by Wellington Sculpture Trust, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand and Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts 2024.
 

March 2024. NZ quarterly WOMAN Magazine Vol2 2024 covers the public artwork HALO in the Artist | Ringatoi feature: "HALO is a brilliant example of how artists are exploring AI, VR, and AR to create unique experiences for viewers. ... The extraordinary work is gathering interest not just locally but also internationally, as digtal art enters the lexicon of more institutions and public collections as well as the imagination of the general population."

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23 Feb.-17 March 2024. New Zealand Aotearoa's biennial arts festival presents HALO, New Zealand’s first digital public artwork, in its summer extravaganza of international artists, world premieres and trailblazing contemporary arts. In collaboration with Wellington Sculpture Trust, the Art Festival adds a new stage for sculpture in the festival skies. The monumental virtual artwork is presented on the waterfront and at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of NZ delighting thousands of locals and visitors to the capital city.

HALO 2023
Tākaka marble, extended reality
25mH x 21.3mDia.
Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington NZ

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