Victoria University’s Adam Art Gallery
is pleased to welcome Michelle Menzies as its new curator.
Ms Menzies
has recently returned from Chicago, where she has been studying towards a PhD
in the Department of English at the University of Chicago. Her dissertation,
‘Archives of Experience: Toward a Digital Aesthetic’, argues a theory of
digital aesthetics through an expanded definition of cinema, with case studies
taken from early film and photography, modern poetry, poetics, expanded cinema,
animation, science-film, and contemporary art.
“I’m very
excited to join the Adam, and look forward to extending my research interests
and the implications of my doctoral work into the conception and realisation of
the Gallery’s programme,” says Ms Menzies.
While
completing her Bachelor of Arts in English and Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) at
the University of Auckland, Ms Menzies co-founded Window with Stephen
Cleland and Luke Duncalfe, a contemporary art and project space which she
co-curated until 2006.
The
initiative had a dual on-site and virtual presence on campus, and ran parallel
programmes of experimental media and virtual art. Window is still
running today and continues to act as an incubator, critical forum and
experimental platform for artists, musicians, curators, critics and gallerists.
Relocating to
the USA as a Fulbright New Zealand Graduate Fellow in 2006, Ms Menzies
continued to be involved in the art scene in addition to her studies. She was
the Chicago correspondent for print arts magazine Flash Art and
contributed to the University of Chicago’s New Media Workshop, which was set up
to bring people working with digital media in different disciplines together.
Most recently
Ms Menzies conceived and coordinated a two day event at the University of
Chicago Film Studies Centre devoted to the works of Anthony McCall, a seminal
figure in American avant-garde cinema. Featuring works in celluloid film and
digital media, the exhibition and its related symposium placed the artist into
conversation with a panel of distinguished curators and scholars to consider
the implications of McCall’s transition between media formats, offering a
critical assessment of his future-oriented legacy.
Director of
the Gallery Tina Barton says Ms Menzies will be working on the gallery’s
exhibition, public and publication programmes and assisting with the
presentation, interpretation and development of the Victoria University art
collection. “I am delighted to welcome Michelle to Wellington and look forward
to seeing her apply her ideas to the Gallery and Victoria’s art collection.”
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