April 2024. Milan based Jenna Grace, art researcher and historian at Fondazione Prada, reflects on Native Tongue XR, Simone Leigh’s US Pavilion and Maria Eichhorn’s German Pavilion, projects changing the notion of monument at the 59th Venice Biennale:
 
"Amongst all the speculation and all the strangers everywhere for the opening of the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Cecilia Alemani’s boldly curated 59th reliquary and its wave of concurrent collateral events still resonate. In 2022, the surreal The Milk Of Dreams theme stirred connections with international movements interrogating colonial monuments. Not all projects had the sentient scale of Simone Leigh’s literal wrapping and reinvention of the US Pavilion to highlight histories of presidential slavery. Two of the most insightful reinventions of monuments didn’t really exist at all. …" View
 

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April 2024. Wellington Sculpture Trust shares big news from the capital: "Gone but not forgotten! HALO, a virtual reality sculpture by artist @gillgatfield, and commissioned by the Wellington Sculpture Trust for its 40th Anniversary celebrations, has left an indelible mark and had record breaking engagement by the public. Over 24,500 HALOs were created by Wellingtonians and visitors to the city from September 2023 to March 2024 – a big number by NZ and international standards. This celestial vision is already missed. People are asking where has HALO gone and when is it coming back!" HALO was presented by Wellington Sculpture Trust, Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand and Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts 2024.
 

March 2024. NZ quarterly WOMAN Magazine Vol2 2024 covers the public artwork HALO in the Artist | Ringatoi feature: "HALO is a brilliant example of how artists are exploring AI, VR, and AR to create unique experiences for viewers. ... The extraordinary work is gathering interest not just locally but also internationally, as digtal art enters the lexicon of more institutions and public collections as well as the imagination of the general population."

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23 Feb.-17 March 2024. New Zealand Aotearoa's biennial arts festival presents HALO, New Zealand’s first digital public artwork, in its summer extravaganza of international artists, world premieres and trailblazing contemporary arts. In collaboration with Wellington Sculpture Trust, the Art Festival adds a new stage for sculpture in the festival skies. The monumental virtual artwork is presented on the waterfront and at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of NZ delighting thousands of locals and visitors to the capital city.

HALO 2023
Tākaka marble, extended reality
25mH x 21.3mDia.
Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington NZ

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March 2024. Launching a new permanent land art commission, Poison Creek Sculpture Project welcomes visitors to a special event and Artist Talk celebrating The Snake Charmer in the high country tussock fields of Central Otago. Recently featured in Listener magazine, Poison Creek hosts a dynamic sculpture collection celebrating Aotearoa New Zealand's finest sculptors and rising stars. The project offers selected artist residencies, themed annual exhibitions, indoor gallery, public open days, and private group tours, with national and international visitors experiencing vibrant contemporary art in a sublime landscape.

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January 2024. A new site-sensitive land artwork joins the permanent collection of Poison Creek Sculpture Project NZ. Developed during the artist's 2023 residency and research into the region’s cultural landscape, ecologies and histories, The Snake Charmer takes root on the slopes of Taraputa (Mt Pisa), above the ancestral Mata-Au (Clutha River). Blending mythology, science, and healing traditions in a striking geometric tableau over 21 metres diameter, the artwork creates a circular energy field. A sea of limestone and medicinal planting for Rongoā Māori circle a black granite figure which is visible through four openings in the regenerating landscape. These apertures mark ley lines between distant mountain peaks, a snake-bend in the awa, and points of significance at Poison Creek.

December 2023. HALO goes viral in New Zealand's capital city with thousands of locals and visitors creating the virtual artwork in real time and space on the waterfront and at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand. Wellington Sculpture Trust and Friends of Te Papa celebrate the success of New Zealand's first digital public sculpture gifted to the people of the capital city!

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November 2023:  An artist interview by critic and curator Sara Buoso for Juliet Art Magazine explores the extended reality sculpture In Absentia and the binding of virtual and physical worlds: ‘In this conversation, conceptual artist Gill Gatfield (based in Aotearoa New Zealand) discusses her digital activation, In Absentia 2023, presented in the UNESCO Geopark Island of Kefalonia, at Stonehenge, and in the British Museum. Through the potential of the metaverse, the artist addresses ways for expanding the poetic and political potential of digital sculpture in communal environments.’
 
Juliet-ArtMagazine.com (English + Italian) 

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Arts Editor John Daly-Peoples writes about Gill Gatfield’s virtual sculpture in Wellington for New Zealand Arts Review:  "The Wellington Sculpture Trust is celebrating its 40th Anniversary by gifting an extended reality Sculpture to the city. The work ‘HALO’ by artist Gill Gatfield is a giant marble circle created in the Metaverse and available to all Wellingtonians via their mobile phone. The work will be visible from the Wellington waterfront promenade, and an outdoor terrace outside the kiosk within the Bush Walk at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand. ... 

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4-6 October 2023. Hosted by San Jose City in the heart of Silicon Valley, CODASummit 2023's annual three day meeting examines the intersections of art, techology and place. "In Artist Showcase 2023 NZ international artist, Gill Gatfield takes us a journey through ancient sites and unique landscapes, as she redefines the potential of sculpture in the immersive world of the Metaverse. Gatfield's work questions the state of humanity in the Anthropocene and carves active spaces that enable radical consiousness and build community across physical and digital worlds."  VIDEO

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