Claremont, Calif. (August 2, 2012)—Pitzer Art Galleries presents Joyce Campbell: Te Taniwha/Crown Coach, a large-scale photographic installation that explores the history, mythology and ecology of two diverse sites: Maori tribal land in New Zealand and a neglected brown-field tract in Los Angeles. The exhibit will be on view at the Nichols Gallery at Pitzer College from September 15 to December 7, 2012.
New Zealand artist Joyce Campbell employs a range of 19th-century photographic techniques—including ambrotypes and daguerreotypes—and a 16mm film to create a dramatic and immersive installation that oscillates between a past, present and future space. Her work provides a context in which to examine identity narratives, aboriginal and local landscapes, and the spiritual, symbolic and geopolitical aspects of the two sites in New Zealand and California.
Exploring waterways between Lake Waikaremoana and Te Reinga, land located in Ngai Kohatu tribal territory in New Zealand, Te Taniwha follows the quest to find two ancient snake-like water species: the Taniwha and the giant longfin eel. Richly layered and mythological, the images conjure the specter of the fantastical water spirit Hinekorako—born of Lake Waikaremoana and progenitor of the Ngai Kohatu subtribe.
The Crown Coach Botanical project chronicles the abundance of plant life thriving in a polluted industrial site in downtown Los Angeles through a series of photographs. Documenting the extensive range of edible and medicinal plants grown in Los Angeles since the city’s birth, these intensely powerful images transform an urban wasteland into a fertile and generative site, serving as an inventory of the city’s rich botanical diversity.
Artist: Joyce Campbell
Curated by: Ciara Ennis
Date: September 15 – December 7, 2012
Time: Tuesdays-Fridays, noon-5 p.m. and by appointment
Location: Nichols Gallery at Pitzer College
1050 N. Mills Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711
Opening Reception:
Saturday, September 15 from 2-4 p.m.
A powhiri, a Maori welcoming ceremony, will be performed by Maori native and historian, Richard Niania.
Artist Lecture:
Thursday, September 13 at 2:45 p.m. at Nichols Gallery
Panel Discussion:
Tuesday, September 25 at 2:45 p.m.
Broad Performance Space, Broad Center, Pitzer College
Panelists include: Edgar Heap of Birds, Cheyenne Arapaho artist and professor of Native American studies and fine arts at the University of Oklahoma; Leda Martins, assistant professor of anthropology, Pitzer College; Stacey McCarroll Cutshaw, editor of exposure; and artist Joyce Campbell. The panel will be moderated by Bill Anthes, professor of art history, Pitzer College.
All events are free and open to the public.
About the Artist
Joyce Campbell received her MFA with honors in Fine Arts from the University of Auckland in 1999. Campbell is an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture, photography, film and video installation, as well as a lecturer at the University of Auckland Elam School of the Arts. She has lectured in studio art at the University of California, Irvine and California State University, Northridge and occasionally works as a freelance curator and art writer. Campbell has participated in numerous solo exhibitions including Te Taniwha at Two Rooms in Auckland, New Zealand (2010) and at McNamara Gallery in Wanganui, New Zealand (2010); LA Botanical and Last Light at Christchurch Art Gallery in Te Puna o Waiwhetu, New Zealand (2010); Crown Coach Botanical at Two Rooms in Auckland, New Zealand (2008); LA Botanical at G727 in Los Angeles, CA and at Starkwhite in Auckland, New Zealand (2007); and Growth and Change at California State University, San Marcos, CA (2006). She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions including BROODWORK: It’s About Time at Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, CA (2011); Antarctica at Pitzer Art Galleries, Pitzer College in Claremont, CA (2007); Nature (Interrupted) at 18th Street Art Center in Santa Monica, CA (2007); Contemporary Landscape Photography at Millard Sheets Art Center in Pomona, CA (2007); Tools of Survival at McNamara Gallery in Wanganui, New Zealand (2007); Artists Who Teach at Sam Francis Gallery in Santa Monica, CA (2006); Faculty Exhibition at Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College in Claremont, CA (2005); Brittle City at Gallery 727 in Los Angeles, CA (2005); and The Garden Lab Experiment in Pasadena, CA (2004). Campbell was a recipient of University of California Inter-campus Arts Research Grant in 1998. She was selected as one of the Antarctica New Zealand/Creative New Zealand Artists to Antarctica Programme awardees in 2006and received an ARC Grant from The Durfee Foundation in 2007. Campbell is represented by McNamara Gallery in Wanganui, New Zealand and Two Rooms in Auckland, New Zealand and has an ongoing exhibiting relationship with G727 in Los Angeles, CA. She is also a member of Artists Pension Trust Los Angeles. Campbell lives and works in New Zealand and the United States.
