Public Seminar Programme Term 1, 2025

Thursday 20 February
Stephen Ellis  |  Buried Giant

Stephen Ellis draws. For him, the slow accumulation of image from tiny marks speaks to the heroic futility of trying to repair a damaged planet. Stephen will present a survey of his work since 2015, looking at its environmental themes, humble materiality and demanding process. He will also introduce the Buried Giant project that will underpin his residency at Dunedin School of Art. The project is informed by solastalgia, or climate grief, and investigates the resonances of memory in familiar landscapes altered by human impact.

Stephen Ellis was born in Dunedin and after schooling in Christchurch and Wellington returned for a Diploma at the Dunedin School of Art. After two years in London in the 1980s, Stephen settled in Auckland and into a career in television. Travel through Europe and the Middle East in the ’90s motivated a return to study (philosophy and te Reo Māori) and freelance work in the film industry in New Zealand and Sweden. In 2015, Stephen completed a Masters degree at Auckland’s Unitec. His drawings have since gained national and international attention. He is represented by Sanderson Contemporary in Auckland.
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Thursday 27 February
Raewyn Martyn  |  Five-dimensional Painting [Online seminar via Teams]*

Raewyn makes site-responsive paintings and installations composed during attentive occupation of sites and situations—these artworks change over time and challenge the stability and temporality of surface, medium and site. Her practice has involved both gallery and site-based artworks that often consider the histories and futures of place. During 2025, Raewyn is a Heritage Collections Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at University of Edinburgh, where she is working with geoscientists to create an artwork informed by the Geological Models Collection. Her presentation at The Dunedin School of Art will draw connections between this project and her earlier work, while also introducing some speculative possibilities of “five-dimensional painting” and more-than human figure/ground relationships.

Raewyn Martyn is Pākehā Tangata Tiriti (Scottish, Irish & English) and was born at Waitaki Bridge/Ōamaru. She is an artist and a Lecturer of Painting at the University of Canterbury, Ōtautahi Christchurch. Raewyn studied toward an MFA in Painting and Printmaking at VCUArts in Richmond VA. (2011–2013) and then worked as an assistant professor of visual arts at Antioch College in Ohio (2013–2016). She was a research participant at the Jan van Eyck Academy in the Netherlands (2016–2017) and completed a practice-based PhD at Toi Rāuwharangi College of Creative Arts, Massey University (2023). ______________________________________________________________________________________

Thursday 6 March
Judy Darragh  |  So You Made it? ... Redux

This presentation is a personal dive into a 40-year journey as an artist in Aotearoa. It’s like a “how did I get here?” moment. Lots of stories and images … come ask questions.

Judy Darragh ONZM is well-known for her brightly coloured sculptural assemblages of found objects, recycled items, industrial materials, collage, photography, video and poster art. She lives and works in Auckland and played a significant role in the development of Artspace, Auckland (now Artspace Aotearoa), the independent artist-run spaces Teststrip and Cuckoo. Darragh came to prominence during the 1980s in an era of conspicuous consumption; her work displays a fondness for everyday objects that is witty and provocative. She has taught art at secondary and tertiary levels for over 40 years and has mentored young artists throughout Aotearoa. With Imogen Taylor she co-editored Femisphere, a publication supporting women’s art practices in Aotearoa. Darragh continues to exhibit extensively throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, her works are held in numerous public collections and she is a member of Arts Maker Aotearoa, an advocacy group for the visual arts. ______________________________________________________________________________________ 

Thursday 13 March
Thomas Lord  |  AIRY (Artist In Residence Yamanashi)

Thomas will discuss his artist residency at AIRY (Artist in Residence Yamanashi) in July 2024, supported by the Asia New Zealand Arts Practitioners Grant. He will reflect on his month in Japan, including photography, drawing and community engagement, which culminated in the exhibition Caught A Glimpse. This talk explores his experiences, challenges and the lasting impact of the residency on his artistic practice and future opportunities.

Thomas Lord is a Senior Lecturer at the Dunedin School of Art, primarily teaching on the Level 6 Diploma in Photography. In addition to lens-based media, he has exhibited paintings that explore nostalgia, ecology and different modes of time that form a common thread across his practice. _______________________________________________________________________________________ 

Thursday 20 March
Caroline McQuarrie  |  Colonised Landscapes

Caroline will discuss recent exhibition projects Like the Turf and How deep into the earth we sink. Exploring the impacts primary industries have had on our country’s landscapes, Caroline’s textile and photographic works engage stories of colonial settler communities and the wider forces of colonialism, industrialisation and globalisation that shaped both their lives and the land, the effects of which are still evident today.

Caroline McQuarrie is an interdisciplinary artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. In her practice, she has long explored personal and familial social histories, and the role of photography and hand-crafted textiles when representing or questioning such narratives. McQuarrie has spent over a decade photographing sites of 1800s mining industries, places of man-altered hills, rivers and bush. McQuarrie is a Senior Lecturer in Photography at Toi Rauwhārangi College of Creative Arts, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University. ______________________________________________________________________________________ 

Thursday 27 March
John Radford  |  Watching Wet Clay Dry

John’s approach to creating art is at times surprising … if, for example, one is stirred by the manifestation of a soft handmade life-sized clay car or a three-storey pub made of malleable clay as you are walking through central city streets … or by floating islands of suburban oblivion … GRAFT®, was created over 15 years as a reaction to and represention of the enormous loss of the 14,000 homes that were demolished/removed to allow the motorways to snake through the heart of Tāmaki Makaurau. John’s alter ego Ron Jadford is a “tool” created to handle the commercial side of the many transactions that the project involved. Ron can be a bit blunt.

John Radford did not attend art school. But he has achieved rather gargantuan successful feats within the making of art: a). Covered the facade of a three-storey pub with malleable clay for four days; b). Over 15 years, sold 249 miniature bay villa house sculptures to decent members of the public; c). Known for retelling bad dad jokes repetitively … which is sort of an “art.” Radford’s approach is hands-on. Being encouraged to make things with clay from age four helped a lot. He created the TIP sculptures in Ponsonby’s Western Park. These were made as his response to the changing face of Auckland, conceived at a time when it seemed that Auckland’s inner city was to become a rather bland collection of mirror glass shoeboxes … which it sort of did, with some great exceptions remaining. _______________________________________________________________________________________ 

Thursday 3 April
Lynn Taylor  |  Mapping, Memory and the Poetics of Place

This seminar is a series of snapshots from Lynn’s studio practice, community science art projects and residencies—a selection of experiences from her career (which she describes as navigating uncharted waters), highlighting an interest in mapping, memory and art operating as an agent for change.

Lynn Taylor focuses on nautical and historically-themed artwork through mapping, memory and the poetics of place. She approaches her practice with a “printmaker’s sensibility,” exploring links between ideas and materiality and responding to the graphic surprise of integrating mediums. Teaching/facilitation forms a dual career path, with work in the Schools of Art and Architecture, as a Sci Art researcher and facilitating workshops in the community. _______________________________________________________________________________________ 

Thursday 10 April
Panel discussion

The artist-run space A conversation amongst artists and curators with various involvements in artist-run spaces, considering such matters as collaboration, community, politics, hierarchies, unpaid work and funding, possibilities and aspirations. _______________________________________________________________________________________  *Seminars can be accessed online via this link: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YTU3Y2QyZTctNTIyZC00ZmZhLThkZDMtOTgwMzc4YTZjNGQw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22450e6824-88ab-4ad2-914d-b0f385da600c%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2248906f9c-eee2-474e-acb8-7720ac92f8fc%22%7d