Eddie Clemens, Image: Resolution Venture (detail), endless runner game, 2022
Photo Credit
In Resolution Venture, Eddie Clemens draws a parallel between the HMS Resolution, the ship on which James Cook made his ill-fated third voyage to the Pacific, and the Turkish fuel tanker Duzgit Venture, believed by some to have been responsible for the severing of Tonga’s undersea fibre-optic internet cable in 2019 and the subsequent online blackout. Incorporating sculpture, multimedia and video-game elements, this exhibition is part of an ongoing project that sees Clemens triangulating a cyborg identity in the Pacific, using as his landmarks the film Blade Runner, the chiefly tortoise Tu’i Malila and the dragging anchor of an off-course cargo ship.
Eddie Clemens is an Auckland-based artist, born and raised in Rotorua. His practice takes place in the intersection between film, photography, performance and sculpture, using these varied media to unlock unconventional avenues of investigation. Clemens is intrigued by the different ways a narrative can be conveyed, and his work forms an ongoing discussion about how physical artefacts can act as vehicles for narratives. Often inspired by film and television, Clemens’ work interrogates and cross-references disparate objects and the stories they tell.
Clemens has a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in painting, from the Ilam School of Fine Arts, and a Masters of Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts, where he majored in sculpture. In addition to his gallery exhibition history, Eddie has produced a number of public works; these include Pinball Lanterns, made on commission from Auckland City Public Library, Cognitive Reorientation, created for SCAPE Public Art Season 2022, and an upcoming permanent public artwork for the Wellington Sculpture Trust titled Fibre-optic Colonnade Car Wash. He is also a past recipient of the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship residency. His works are held in the collections of The Chartwell Trust, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetū, and Societe BIC Paris.
In Resolution Venture, Eddie Clemens draws a parallel between the HMS Resolution, the ship on which James Cook made his ill-fated third voyage to the Pacific, and the Turkish fuel tanker Duzgit Venture, believed by some to have been responsible for the severing of Tonga’s undersea fibre-optic internet cable in 2019 and the subsequent online blackout. Incorporating sculpture, multimedia and video-game elements, this exhibition is part of an ongoing project that sees Clemens triangulating a cyborg identity in the Pacific, using as his landmarks the film Blade Runner, the chiefly tortoise Tu’i Malila and the dragging anchor of an off-course cargo ship.
Eddie Clemens is an Auckland-based artist, born and raised in Rotorua. His practice takes place in the intersection between film, photography, performance and sculpture, using these varied media to unlock unconventional avenues of investigation. Clemens is intrigued by the different ways a narrative can be conveyed, and his work forms an ongoing discussion about how physical artefacts can act as vehicles for narratives. Often inspired by film and television, Clemens’ work interrogates and cross-references disparate objects and the stories they tell.
Clemens has a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in painting, from the Ilam School of Fine Arts, and a Masters of Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts, where he majored in sculpture. In addition to his gallery exhibition history, Eddie has produced a number of public works; these include Pinball Lanterns, made on commission from Auckland City Public Library, Cognitive Reorientation, created for SCAPE Public Art Season 2022, and an upcoming permanent public artwork for the Wellington Sculpture Trust titled Fibre-optic Colonnade Car Wash. He is also a past recipient of the Frances Hodgkins Fellowship residency. His works are held in the collections of The Chartwell Trust, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetū, and Societe BIC Paris.
