12 July 2023. A sunset opening and heartwarming reception for In Absentia in Farsa, a village of two parts beside the Ionian Sea. Presented in a circle in the village square, the activation drew together a community focussing on the future as it rebuilds its heritage, reconnecting with Old Farsa, a C16th century stone fishing village on the mountainside that was abandoned after the devastating 1959 Earthquake. The digital sculpture is activated throughout July in unique locations in the UNESCO geopark Island of Kefalonia with its welcoming people, mythical landscapes and deep cultural histories. In Absentia in Farsa is presented by Ionion Center for the Arts & Culture and Farsa Village Council with ‘We Are Nature' International Festival 2023 and UNESCO GeoPark Kefalonia.

After three years of research and studio experiments, a new shape-shifting monument In Absentia is launched in Greece – the first activations of a series of international presentations. Supported by the Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Global Digital New Work programme, the virtual sculpture invites audience engagement and participation. Created through mobile phone technology, In Absentia will be physically experienced in real time and space, in specific locations worldwide. The work explores how futuristic forms can create new possibilities and connections between humanity, environment, technology, time and place. Site specific research and activations take place in Greece (June-July 2023) and UK (August 2023).

In Absentia 2023
crystal glass, Acropolis marble, extended reality
3.53mH x 3mDia.

6 July 2023. 'In Absentia' has been selected for presentation in the inaugural 'We Are Nature' International Festival, a multidisciplinary arts and culture event in Kefalonia Greece. Combining light installations, forest weavings and cultural activities, the festival is supported by the Greece Natural Environment and Climate Change Agency  (NECCA), Ionion Center for Arts & Cuture, and Kefalonia municipal authorities. The festival will run in special sites across the Island from July-September 2023.

June 2023. Site specific research and development of the new virtual sculpture In Absentia will start in UNESCO Geopark sites of the Ionion island of Kefalonia supported by a one month residency and exhibition grant awarded by the Ionion Center for the Arts & Culture Greece. Gatfield's residency project includes experimentation and activations of the digital presence in sites of antiquity and special significance in geology, ecology and culture in the Geopark, a gem in the Ionion sea imbued with ancient history and philosophy. The Ionion Center's programmes are designed and led by international artists and academics, including curatorial lead Dr Haytham Nawar, aiming to advance and promote creative collaborations across the fields of research, arts, technology, science and the environment.

2023 Artist in Residence is awarded to NZ based international artist Gill Gatfield by Poison Creek Sculpture Project. High on the foothills of Mount Pisa in Te Waipounamu / South Island NZ. Poison Creek hosts a dynamic contemporary sculpture collection that celebrates and supports Aotearoa's finest sculptors and rising stars. Gill Gatfield's residency project will evolve across two seasons in this wilderness landscape, experimenting with new materials and ideas and exploring the healing and spiritual powers of this magical place as she creates an enchanting site-specific work that connects with Poison Creek's unique ecology and cultural landscape.

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Jan. 2023. A new video reveals the magic of Native Tongue XR, an ephemeral presence experienced at over 3 metres / 10ft high in real time and place during Venice Art Biennale 2022. Showcased by the European Cultural Centre for 7 months in the exhibition 'Personal Structures', the digital monument was created by over 3,000 art enthusiasts inside the Giardini della Marinessa and on the monumental Venetian waterfront.

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Oct.-Dec. 2022. "Launching at Paris Photo 2022, XIBT Magazine includes a critique of captivating conceptual artist and thinker, Gill Gatfield's UNITY by writer and curator Roxane Latrèche:

At once totem and monument, personal spiritual token and collective unyielding pillar, Gill Gatfield’s UNITY probes the symbols for which it stands. Among the sinuous waters and alleys of Venice, its two specifically-sited I-forms materialise. One nestled on a wall; a jewel among the many pendants that adorn the halls of the 15th-century Palazzo Bembo, built on the Canal Grande to house the treasures of a noble merchant family – Harmony, a miniature sculpture, a crest to its surroundings. The other erected on the ground; a virtual stela among the perennial pines of the Giardini della Marinaressa, confronting the storied lagoon as have for centuries warring and parading ships – Native Tongue XR, a monumental digital structure, a vestige of its histories. ..."

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Oct 2022. In the frame of the exhibition UNITY in Venice, curator Bohdan Stupak interviewed Gill Gatfield for contemporary art magazine ARTScore, canvassing the artist's relationship to the city of water, her sources of inspiration, dedication to natural materials, conceptual approach to minimalism, and the embodied critique of democratic ideals in her three Venetian sculptures: Native Tongue XR 2018-2022, Harmony 2022, and Zealandia 2018.

"Venice mirrors the mind. Full of mystery and intrigue, the city physically plunges the body into its hidden streets and canals: narrow and winding, enveloped by the darkness and the elements of the centuries. Secret passages force people to come closer: anonymous whispering bodies passing by. ... Being inside Venice is like being inside a sensory cave. Creativity runs through the veins of the city."

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English Translation of ARTScore Interview

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