Sept 2022. A new article expands on the digital artworks in Personal Structures 2022 by ([{ collective, Superchief Gallery, Carrie Able, Gill Gatfield, Sasha Sparks, Corine van Voorbergen, Mark Dotzler, and Marianna Williams:

Contemporary art continues to incorporate new technologies and new paradigms, encouraging spectators to explore different ways of thinking and seeing the world. Being an open and progressive platform at the forefront of current developments in art and society, the European Cultural Centre selected for its biennial art exhibition 'Personal Structures' a group of artists and galleries that contribute to the realm of digital art. ...

At Giardini della Marinaressa, New Zealand sculptor Gill Gatfield presents Native Tongue XR, a three metre virtual sculpture existing in the Metaverse. ... Merging creative technology within the framework of conceptual art, the artwork presents as an immersive sensory experience while also using the method of its making as critical content to build further ideas. In Gatfield’s practice, extended reality is a means and not an end. ...

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Sept. 2022. Gill Gatfield's UNITY features in Venezia News round-up of digital artworks in Venice as they relate to the city and the future. In her review 'Personal Structures - The Dawn of New Art', Elena Migotto identifies the two sculptures in UNITY - Harmony and Native Tongue XR as 'artworks in search of new expressive scenarios':

.. More disorienting still are the ways in which New Zealand sculptor Gill Gatfield ... reclaims space in the Palazzo Bembo and the Giardini della Marinaressa. In the first case, two sculptures, independent, connect as much in the form that characterises them as in their proportional scales: Harmony is a miniature I, while Native Tongue XR is a monumental I. Once again here, the use of the Metaverse appears crucial to eliciting the sense of intangible attraction with which the concreteness of the totemic Native Tongue is deconstructed, transcending the bounds of immediate materiality. … 

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In Venice, European Cultural Centre launches a new publication on the artist's work in the biennial exhibition Personal Structures 2022. The micro-catalogue designed by the artist reflects the UNITY methodologies: miniature and metaverse, physical and digital, and includes excerpts from an upcoming review by Berlin based curator Roxane Latrèche, accessed via QR code.

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Sept. 2022. European Cultural Centre sculptor curator Vittoria Mastrolilli interviews Gill Gatfield on her research and ideas expressed through the forms, materials, methodologies, and contexts of her site-specific project UNITY presented by ECC in 'Personal Structures' in parallel with the Venice Art Biennale 2022; and asks how this work expands on the artist's sculpture Zealandia in 'Time Space Existence' at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2018.

"UNITY evokes the wisdom of ancestors and new philosophies to activate the mind’s eye. From early Buddhist teachings and the 6th century BCE musings of the Ancient Greek slave Aesop to the 19th century CE whakatauki by Māori King Tāwhaio, spiritual guides call for strength in unity when confronted with adversity. ... This project imagines how the forces of unity can be shaped in the Anthropocene, a period of self-centrality and drive to dominate not only the ‘Other’ – nations and people outside the centres of power – but also the Earth and the biosphere. ..."

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Sept. 2022.  New Zealand sculptor Gill Gatfield presents two artist talks on UNITY, from ancient worlds to the metaverse, a philosophy and practice explored in two precisely sited sculptures - the precious miniature Harmony at the C15th Palazzo Bembo and the digital monument Native Tongue XR at Marinaressa Gardens on the monumental Ventian promenade. At these two public events in the historic waterfront venues, the artworks are activated in the Metaverse and in physical space. Hosted by European Cultural Centre, the presentation of UNITY is opened by New Zealand Consul General to Italy, Austin Brick, and includes the launch of a new catalogue with text by contemporary art curator Roxane Latrèche.

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22 April-27 Nov 2022. Invited by European Cultural Centre to present her work in Venice for the second time, NZ artist Gill Gatfield conceived a new project UNITY for the exhibition Personal Structures 2022 presented in parallel with La Biennale di Venezia. ECC invites artists from across the globe to present work, thoughts, and research in the biennial exhibition that will stimulate new and inclusive dialogues, unlock ideas and experiences, and advance cultural exchange. First conceived in 2002 as an itinerant programme of exhibitions, symposia and publications in Asia, North America and Europe, the project found its home in Venice, Italy in 2011 where the first edition of Personal Structures took place. As a crossroads of cultures and important exchanges in history, Venice is a reference point for developments in contemporary art and a place where the past, the present, and the future coexist.

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July 2022. From the Venice Architecture Biennale 2018 to the heritage landscape of Government House Auckland NZ, curator Ineke Dane explores the systems challenges and new directions heralded by the stone monument Zealandia  its inaugural presentation in Venice, and its new ‘site intuit’ on the volcanic slopes of Maungawhau, Mount Eden:

From time immemorial utopia has sat on the horizon, in sight but out of reach, a mirage. Defined infinitely, the concept of a place and time where all are free to be and live equally is what drives us, regardless of the process. ... Aotearoa New Zealand artist Gill Gatfield’s sculptural gesture to the future, Zealandia, confronts this discussion. Through the figure ‘X’ (a chromosome, a kiss, a Roman numeral), it frames our pivotal moment in time by referencing the past, while simultaneously operating as both zeitgeist and emblem for a world to aspire to ... 

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June 2022. Ōtautahi Christchurch based SCAPE Public Art curates New Zealand’s premier public art exhibitions, showcasing leading national and international contemporary artists, and providing a springboard for emerging local talent. Season 2022's Catalogue features Mirror Image by Aotearoa NZ sculptor Gill Gatfield with artworks by leading Māori artist and curator Prof. Robert Jahnke and Tongan Diaspora artist Sione Monū - recently profiled in NY Times Queer Indigenous Artists Reclaiming a Fluid Sense of Gender.

Mirror Image holds the outline of a C19th cheval mirror, an object connected with domesticity and feminine beauty, and a 'good' commonly traded or gifted to indigenous peoples in an era when mirrors represented the coloniser's god-like power. Neither mirror nor image, the sculpture's geometry and optical effects cast shadows that replicate a 'mirror image' on the ground. An alluring sensory experience, Mirror Image faces backward and forward, offering a glimpse into non-linear time.

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28 May 2022. Artist's Panel opens the public programme of Conversations on Shadow Architecture: CoSA artist Gill Gatfield and architect/designer Clare Kennedy from Five Mile Radius speak with architect and academic Chris Fox and curator Ineke Dane about their contributions to CoSA. An accompanying publication features writing and images by each exhibited practitioner and texts by leading thinkers in Critical Spatial Practice: Keller Easterling, Markus Miessen and Aleksandra Wasilkowska.

CONVERSATIONS ON SHADOW ARCHITECTURE
Dominik Mersch Gallery Sydney 28 May - 25 June 
DMG Curator Award Exhibition
Supported by Australia Council for the Arts & Arts Queensland

eflux 

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May 2022. Award winning curator Ineke Dane brings together national and international artists, architects and composers to explore Critical Spatial Practice - a theoretical lens and practical mode that critically engages with the cultural, social and political potential of space and architecture. The multidisciplinary exhibition 'Conversations on Shadow Architecture' presents work by artists and architects from Albania, Aotearoa NZ, Australia, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Peru, and USA.

"The contributors to C o S A were invited because their practices resonate with the non-hierarchical limbs of our thought exercise: creatives who disrupt the machine or reject the monotony of what’s practiced in the everyday. They step clear of the well-beaten track to provoke the core of our humanness—and its shadow—recalling the currency of fluid, liminal and responsive existence." 

An accompanying publication features writing and images by each exhibited practitioner and texts by Keller Easterling, Markus Miessen and Aleksandra Wasilkowska.

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