Ex-New York and now Wanganui-based artist Brit Bunkley is a self-confessed computer nerd. Even being on dial-up hasn't stopped him from spending hundreds of hours creating a virtual take on rural NZ that is both disquieting and darkly humorous. In Slow Train a Comin', which opens at the NZ Film Archive in Wellington on 7 June, the idyllic countryside is transformed with apocalyptic visions of strange new genetic creations.Ex-New York and now Wanganui-based artist Brit Bunkley is a self-confessed computer nerd. Even being on dial-up hasn't stopped him from spending hundreds of hours creating a virtual take on rural NZ that is both disquieting and darkly humorous. In Slow Train a Comin', which opens at the NZ Film Archive in Wellington on 7 June, the idyllic countryside is transformed with apocalyptic visions of strange new genetic creations.Bunkley says his work plays on a paranoid fear of (non-religious) apocalyptic doom, inspired in part by science's experiments in the gene pool, and the way issues such as global warming will play an increasing part in our lives.

The video vignettes were created by compositing photorealistic 3D animations with digitally altered footage of rural New Zealand.

Bunkley is the head of sculpture and a lecturer in digital media at Wanganui UCOL in Wanganui, New Zealand. He has lived in the rural environment for 12 years after leaving the city life of Brooklyn, New York behind.

Taking his experience of migration to the South Pacific, Bunkley portrays anxiety about the modern world on his astro-turf setting.

"I lived for years with a view of the World Trade Centre out my window and I never really liked it in New York. Now I live with the view of two volcanoes from my studio window and there's a certain Lynchian spookiness to it all - something sinister behind the beautiful. I love that small town idea of creepiness. In saying that, Wanganui is pretty uptopian. I love it here."

His work has appeared in many solo and group shows and is in public and private collections in NZ and the USA. In addition he has completed numerous public commissions, while also receiving several grants and fellowships including the National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship grant, New York State artist fellowship, and the Rome Prize Fellowship.

At the same time as Slow Train a Comin' plays Wellington, it will also be part of two international festivals of digital art. The 404:International Festival of Electronic Art is currently travelling through Central Europe, while the Virtual Residency will be streaming live in Poland, Germany and Luxembourg.

When: 7 June - 23 June 2007
Where: New Zealand Film Archive mediagallery, cnr Taranaki and Ghuznee Sts, Wellington