Gill Gatfield’s Zealandia en route to Venice Biennale
Seeking an ideal ‘site’ for Zealandia, Gill Gatfield imagined an emerald-green South Island rainforest. Working with an iconic image by Craig Potton, the ancient stone sculpture emerges from this primordial landscape, rising up like the mist.
Zealandia (At Home) ©Gill Gatfield. Composite Photo: Conrad Morley / Craig Potton Rainforest NZ.
Auckland-based sculptor Gill Gatfield is the only New Zealand artist to have been invited to participate in the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, which opens on 24 May and runs until 26 November.
Gatfield’s sculpture, Zealandia, will feature in ‘Time, Space, Existence’, an exhibition curated and presented by the Global Art Foundation. It will be sited in the Giardino della Marinaressa, between the Biennale’s main venues, the Arsenale and Giardini, alongside works by renowned artists and architects from around the globe.
Currently in a shipping container en route to Venice, Zealandia stands 2.3 metres high and weighs over 1.5 tonnes. Carved from ancient stone extracted from the South Island, it combines technical innovation and minimalist form, with its twin slabs appearing to defy gravity while the exposed striations capture striking snapshots of primordial time.
“Zealandia took shape as soon as I saw the stone. I knew the sculpture needed to rise up and intersect – like the tectonic plates that shifted, resulting in the uplift that formed this stone,” says Gatfield. “Taking Zealandia to Italy – the home of stone and classical sculpture – challenges the flow of the stone trade and of art history. Zealandia is a futuristic figure, carved from a piece of Aotearoa formed millions of years ago, heading to the islands of Venice for the Olympics of art and architecture.”
In mid-May, Gatfield will travel to Venice to oversee the siting and installation of the work and take part in the Biennale’s opening formalities and artist symposia, which includes the opportunity to present a paper about her work in a public lecture on 27 May. It is estimated that 250,000 people will visit the Biennale over the exhibition’s six-month duration.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Since completing her MFA(Hons) from The University of Auckland in 2003, Gill Gatfield has exhibited widely in New Zealand and internationally. She has presented new work in curated exhibitions in Australia, USA and Europe. Gill has undertaken a number of significant public commissions and is no stranger to sending large works around the globe. In 2015, she presented a four-tonne black granite sculpture, The Kiss, at Sculpture by the Sea, Denmark. That project won a coveted international CODA award in 2017.
