Three New Zealand artists - Tabatha Forbes, Waikerere Gregory and Alison Isadora - have been selected by the  Department of Conservation and Creative New Zealand to take up Wild Creations artist residencies in 2005.

Raglan mixed media artist Waikarere Gregory will take up her residency in Aniwaniwa, Te Urewera National Park (right) to develop a body of work involving sculpture, written work and performance. Three New Zealand artists - Tabatha Forbes, Waikerere Gregory and Alison Isadora - have been selected by the  Department of Conservation and Creative New Zealand to take up Wild Creations artist residencies in 2005.

Raglan mixed media artist Waikarere Gregory will take up her residency in Aniwaniwa, Te Urewera National Park (right) to develop a body of work involving sculpture, written work and performance.She plans to work with the local Tuhoe people, bringing her artistic training into practice alongside the Maori perspective of the inter-relationship between all the natural forces.

Auckland multi-media artist Tabatha Forbes has chosen Kingston in Central Otago as her residency site. She will develop a painting project, producing a series of botanical studies unique to the environment and a video work that explores the "sublime" experience within the environment in the tradition of late nineteenth-century painters.

 
Audio artist and composer Alison Isadora, formerly of Wellington but now based in the Netherlands, intends to spend time in Bannockburn, Central Otago collecting sound material to produce a collection of songs. She will also collect images of the river and create an interactive performance piece or installation.

Wild Creations is a partnership between the Department of Conservation and Creative New Zealand. It aims to foster links between conservation and artists by encouraging artists to create work inspired by New Zealand's unique places, people, stories and natural environment.

More than 60 artists applied for the 2005 six-week residencies, which will take place at a range of conservation sites throughout New Zealand. DOC provides accommodation and logistical support for the artists. Creative New Zealand provides a stipend of $5000, plus up to $1000 for travel and materials to each artist.

Chair of the selection panel Kerry Marshall said the panel was impressed with the high calibre of entries, and thanked all the artists for the time and thought put into their applications.

Members of the panel looked for applications that demonstrated an excellent understanding of the purpose of the Wild Creations programme and how a residency would expand their practice. They also looked for an expression from artists of a clear connection between the natural and cultural values of their chosen area and how a residency in that area would inform and inspire their work.

"The three artists we finally selected ranked highly against the selection criteria and we anticipate great outcomes from the residencies," Mr Marshall said.

Anne McLean, programme co-ordinator for DOC, said that the residencies were an ideal way of promoting New Zealand's natural and historic heritage.

"The high standard of applications received since Wild Creation's inauguration in 2002 is a clear affirmation of the programme's potential. The artists involved to date have demonstrated the purpose and value of the programme through their involvement with the people and place of their chosen site, and have shared that experience through the works resulting from their residencies."

Elizabeth Kerr, Chief Executive of Creative New Zealand, said that New Zealand artists had always been influenced by this country's landscape - the coastlines, the open spaces and the long views.

"There's a clarity about New Zealand art that springs from our wild places and we've seen some exciting outcomes from previous Wild Creations recipients," Miss Kerr said. "This partnership continues to demonstrate the way government organisations can work together to enhance their resources and achieve their goals."

For further information please contact:
Anne McLean, DOC Senior Awareness Conservation Manager, 04 471 3182
Undine Marshfield, Senior Media and Communications Adviser, Creative New Zealand

Tel: 04 498 0725  Mob: 0274 965 925  Email: undinem@creativenz.govt.nz

***
Biographical notes:
Waikarere Gregory (Te Rarawa, Te Aupouri, Ngati Kahu, Nga Puhi) grew up beside Te Rarawa Marae in the Far North where she learned the art of raranga (weaving) alongside her Kuia. She has been actively involved in the marae, including work on a mural covering the wall of the wharekai. More recently she has been involved in the dressing of the wharenui at Piritahi Marae on Waiheke Island.

Her formal learning has included philosophy, religion and social anthropology as well as a range of artforms such as photography, ceramics, weaving and jewellery. She is a student and self-employed artist, working from Raglan where she operates as TuiTui Arts, and is constantly look for ways to challenge herself in her life and her art.

Waikarere has contributed to a number of exhibitions this year, including Mana Wahine at Te Taumata Art Gallery and the Matariki and Waiheke Spirit exhibitions at Artworks on Waiheke Island. As a weaver, she was a member of the Aotearoa New Zealand delegation to the 9th Festival of Pacific Arts in Belau, the Micronesian Republic of Palau, in July.  

Waikarere was attracted to the Wild Creations residency for the opportunity it provided her to bring her artistic training into practice alongside the M?ori perspective of the inter-relationship between all the natural forces.

"Urewera is a place rich in stories, life and wairua/spirit. This is ultimately what I would like to convey in any work that comes out of my residency.  

Tabatha Forbes is a multi-media artist in Waitakere City, Auckland. She works in her studio at Corban Estate Arts Centre and teaches botanical painting and history. She is also studying towards her Masters in Fine Arts and is a member of the Waitakere Ranges Protection Society.

She is particularly interested in how people experience New Zealand's natural environment through real experiences (i.e. walking in the bush) and vicariously (i.e. through art and media), as well as its role in our national psyche and identity.

"Through my paintings and art classes I attempt to broaden people's understanding of native plants and their relationship with the environment," Forbes says. "I want to do this residency to increase my knowledge of our native flora and landscape, and turn this study into two bodies of work to extend people's understanding of the New Zealandlandscape."  

She has ten years' experience in video/sound installation and performance work, and more recently has produced contemporary paintings of New Zealand's native flora and landscape.

She has been exhibiting paintings and photographs since 1991 and had her first painting studio in Wellington while she was studying literature at Victoria University and then photographic design at Wellington Polytechnic.

Since graduating from Elam Art School in 1997, she's been balancing her own art practice with arts administration and management roles.

In her first year of art school she was awarded the Rosemary Grice Memorial Prize, Auckland University. In 1996, she was awarded the Best Student Fine Arts, University Prize and a Lifespan Smokefree scholarship and in 1995, she was awarded the Panasonic Video Art Prize, Auckland University.

Alison Isadora gained a Bachelors of Arts and Bachelor of Music at Victoria University of Wellington, graduating in 1985. Now based in the Netherlands, she gained a Diploma in Performance Violin (1989) and in Composition (1994) from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. In 2003, she graduated from DasArts, an institution for post-graduate theatre study.

Isadora has produced numerous music-theatre works and performed extensively throughout the world. She is particularly interested in the relationship between text and music, and has used oral histories and biographical information in her work.

In 2001, she was the Mozart Fellow at Otago University. During this fellowship, she began collecting text material from early Pakeha settlers in Otago from the Hocken Library. As part of her Wild Creations residency, she will spend some time at the library looking specifically at material related to the gold mining activities in Central Otago.

"I'm very interested in the Kawerau River - in particular the continuing interaction between people and the river, and how this interaction affects both parties," she says.

"The opportunity offered by this residency will be significant for my artistic development. I feel very connected to this area in New Zealand. Some of my forebears were goldminers and I recognise the importance of retelling the stories of past generations."

Isadora will spend five weeks based at Bannockburn collecting sound material from the river, the dam, various mining machinery and jet boats. She also plans to interview tourists and locals about their relationship with the river and the Kawerau Gorge, and use this material to produce a collection of songs.

She will also collect images of the river and create an interactive performance piece or  installation.    

**
Auckland multi-media artist Tabatha Forbes has chosen Kingston in Central Otago as her residency site. She will develop a painting project, producing a series of botanical studies unique to the environment and a video work that explores the "sublime" experience within the environment in the tradition of late nineteenth-century painters.

 
Audio artist and composer Alison Isadora, formerly of Wellington but now based in the Netherlands, intends to spend time in Bannockburn, Central Otago collecting sound material to produce a collection of songs. She will also collect images of the river and create an interactive performance piece or installation.

Wild Creations is a partnership between the Department of Conservation and Creative New Zealand. It aims to foster links between conservation and artists by encouraging artists to create work inspired by New Zealand's unique places, people, stories and natural environment.

More than 60 artists applied for the 2005 six-week residencies, which will take place at a range of conservation sites throughout New Zealand. DOC provides accommodation and logistical support for the artists. Creative New Zealand provides a stipend of $5000, plus up to $1000 for travel and materials to each artist.

Chair of the selection panel Kerry Marshall said the panel was impressed with the high calibre of entries, and thanked all the artists for the time and thought put into their applications.

Members of the panel looked for applications that demonstrated an excellent understanding of the purpose of the Wild Creations programme and how a residency would expand their practice. They also looked for an expression from artists of a clear connection between the natural and cultural values of their chosen area and how a residency in that area would inform and inspire their work.

"The three artists we finally selected ranked highly against the selection criteria and we anticipate great outcomes from the residencies," Mr Marshall said.

Anne McLean, programme co-ordinator for DOC, said that the residencies were an ideal way of promoting New Zealand's natural and historic heritage.

"The high standard of applications received since Wild Creation's inauguration in 2002 is a clear affirmation of the programme's potential. The artists involved to date have demonstrated the purpose and value of the programme through their involvement with the people and place of their chosen site, and have shared that experience through the works resulting from their residencies."

Elizabeth Kerr, Chief Executive of Creative New Zealand, said that New Zealand artists had always been influenced by this country's landscape - the coastlines, the open spaces and the long views.

"There's a clarity about New Zealand art that springs from our wild places and we've seen some exciting outcomes from previous Wild Creations recipients," Miss Kerr said. "This partnership continues to demonstrate the way government organisations can work together to enhance their resources and achieve their goals."

For further information please contact:
Anne McLean, DOC Senior Awareness Conservation Manager, 04 471 3182
Undine Marshfield, Senior Media and Communications Adviser, Creative New Zealand

Tel: 04 498 0725  Mob: 0274 965 925  Email: undinem@creativenz.govt.nz

***
Biographical notes:
Waikarere Gregory (Te Rarawa, Te Aupouri, Ng?ti Kahu, Ng? Puhi) grew up beside Te Rarawa Marae in the Far North where she learned the art of raranga (weaving) alongside her Kuia. She has been actively involved in the marae, including work on a mural covering the wall of the wharekai. More recently she has been involved in the dressing of the wharenui at Piritahi Marae on Waiheke Island.

Her formal learning has included philosophy, religion and social anthropology as well as a range of artforms such as photography, ceramics, weaving and jewellery. She is a student and self-employed artist, working from Raglan where she operates as TuiTui Arts, and is constantly look for ways to challenge herself in her life and her art.

Waikarere has contributed to a number of exhibitions this year, including Mana Wahine at Te Taumata Art Gallery and the Matariki and Waiheke Spirit exhibitions at Artworks onWaiheke Island. As a weaver, she was a member of the Aotearoa New Zealand delegation to the 9th Festival of Pacific Arts in Belau, the Micronesian Republic of Palau, in July.  

Waikarere was attracted to the Wild Creations residency for the opportunity it provided her to bring her artistic training into practice alongside the M?ori perspective of the inter-relationship between all the natural forces.

"Urewera is a place rich in stories, life and wairua/spirit. This is ultimately what I would like to convey in any work that comes out of my residency."

Tabatha Forbes is a multi-media artist in Waitakere City, Auckland. She works in her studio at Corban Estate Arts Centre and teaches botanical painting and history. She is also studying towards her Masters in Fine Arts and is a member of the Waitakere Ranges Protection Society.

She is particularly interested in how people experience New Zealand's natural environment through real experiences (i.e. walking in the bush) and vicariously (i.e. through art and media), as well as its role in our national psyche and identity.

"Through my paintings and art classes I attempt to broaden people's understanding of native plants and their relationship with the environment," Forbes says. "I want to do this residency to increase my knowledge of our native flora and landscape, and turn this study into two bodies of work to extend people's understanding of the New Zealandlandscape."

She has ten years' experience in video/sound installation and performance work, and more recently has produced contemporary paintings of New Zealand's native flora and landscape.

She has been exhibiting paintings and photographs since 1991 and had her first painting studio in Wellington while she was studying literature at Victoria University and then photographic design at Wellington Polytechnic.

Since graduating from Elam Art School in 1997, she's been balancing her own art practice with arts administration and management roles.

In her first year of art school she was awarded the Rosemary Grice Memorial Prize, Auckland University. In 1996, she was awarded the Best Student Fine Arts, University Prize and a Lifespan Smokefree scholarship and in 1995, she was awarded the Panasonic Video Art Prize, Auckland University.

Alison Isadora gained a Bachelors of Arts and Bachelor of Music at Victoria University of Wellington, graduating in 1985. Now based in the Netherlands, she gained a Diploma in Performance Violin (1989) and in Composition (1994) from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. In 2003, she graduated from DasArts, an institution for post-graduate theatre study.

Isadora has produced numerous music-theatre works and performed extensively throughout the world. She is particularly interested in the relationship between text and music, and has used oral histories and biographical information in her work.

In 2001, she was the Mozart Fellow at Otago University. During this fellowship, she began collecting text material from early Pakeha settlers in Otago from the Hocken Library. As part of her Wild Creations residency, she will spend some time at the library looking specifically at material related to the gold mining activities in Central Otago.

"I'm very interested in the Kawerau River - in particular the continuing interaction between people and the river, and how this interaction affects both parties," she says.

"The opportunity offered by this residency will be significant for my artistic development. I feel very connected to this area in New Zealand. Some of my forebears were goldminers and I recognise the importance of retelling the stories of past generations."

Isadora will spend five weeks based at Bannockburn collecting sound material from the river, the dam, various mining machinery and jet boats. She also plans to interview tourists and locals about their relationship with the river and the Kawerau Gorge, and use this material to produce a collection of songs.

She will also collect images of the river and create an interactive performance piece or   installation.    

***