May 2022. The digital sculpture Native Tongue XR has been selected by the new EU-funded open-science research database founded by the AURORA School for ARtists at University of Applied Sciences Berlin. The Aurora ARchive documents unique augmented reality (AR) art and culture projects to enable artists, scientists and researchers to track international AR developments. Native Tongue XR is No. 105 in the archive, joining global projects such as the recent AR Biennale 2022 in Düsseldorf, Essen and Cologne, and the National Gallery of Singapore 2022 AR exhibition curated by Daniel Birbaum with work by KAWS and Olafur Eliasson. Native Tongue XR has been presented by CODAworx at A18 'Blueprint for Better Cities' New York; Sculpture by the Sea 2021 Perth Australia; Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Berlin; and currently by European Cultural Centre in 'Personal Structures' Venice Art Biennale 2022. 

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“A visual narrative, the 'Alter Ego' video explores the ideas and forms of Aotearoa artist Gill Gatfield’s shape-shifting solo exhibition in Berlin, illuminating a practice that creates unexpected sculptural volumes, bends matter and reasoning about atavistic shapes, and creating philosophical, sociological and interactional pathways at the intersection of digital, physical and sensory realms.” – Curator Chiara Valci Mazzara

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March 2022.  Art Tours Berlin features Native Tongue XR in its curated public programme: IS THE FUTURE OF ART DIGITAL? NFTs, Data, the Metaverse, and More: "Visiting exhibitions that explore digital art's potential to change the art industry forever, we look at augmented reality in art through the work of distinguished sculptor Gill Gatfield at Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Here we will discuss the work with curator Chiara Valci Mazzara. The monumental sculpture on the green outside the gallery appears out of thin air, summoned by a QR code. The physical sculpture is in New Zealand and carved from the heartwood of a giant tree buried over 50,000 years ago, illustrating the power of technology to transport objects."

Feb 2022. Curator Chiara Valci Mazarra writes about the exhibition Alter Ego: "On the occasion of her first solo presentation in Berlin, Alter Ego, Aotearoa New Zealand born artist Gill Gatfield conceived a project in two chapters – a large scale crystal-glass sculpture and a public space virtual reality installation – which talk and expand towards the human being. Renowned for her minimal, conceptual and abstract sculptures, and for her inclusive public monuments, Gatfield’s project relates to the public, the architecture, structures and infrastructures of the city, the area of Berlin Mitte and the L40 building, an iconic black maze designed by Cosima von Bonin and Roger Bundschuh, home of the Kunstverein am Rosa Luxemburg Platz.

Inside the foyer of the L40, The Muses vibrate, float and emerge from the space and reverberate meanings. The installation centers the eye on three monumental glass figures, shining outward from halos of soft white shaded edges, lightly held to the ground by an over one-hundred year old pine timber beam. They are shaped as ‘I’, as pure ancestral forms, as deeply rooted and recognised syntagms, as totemic figures.  ..." 

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Jan 2022. The virtual twin of the ancient kauri sculpture Native Tongue from Aotearoa NZ, is inaugurated in a city park in Berlin-Mitte in Chapter II of the solo show Alter Ego presented by Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. The 3mH vitual sculpture manifests through the Metaverse, an urban intervention bringing spiritual and natural worlds into the city. Native Tongue XR is sited in the public green between the Kunstverein’s L40 gallery and the Volksbühne (the People’s Theatre) from 14 Jan. to 10 April, curated by Susanne Prinz, Head Curator and Director, Kunstverein and international curator Chiara Valci-Mazzara.

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Nov. 2021 - April 2022. Presented by Kunstverein am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in the iconic L40 building, Alter Ego comprises two parts: The Muses, a monumental crystal-glass sculpture in the Foyer gallery, and Native Tongue XR, a virtual reality ancient kauri spirit-figure in an adjacent public park. This solo exhibition in the cultural precinct of Berlin explores states of being and tension, through futuristic media and ancestral forms. During the four month presentation the ephemeral artworks are encountered in public space, engaging the human psyche and sensory realms in the chaotic and calm moments of the present tense. 

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Nov 2021. Architecturally designed virtual museum Archai Virtualis launches at CODASummit in Scottsdale Arizona to an in-person and online global audience of 1,200 creative and digital professionals. Developed by US-based LMNL Studio, the Museum presents Gatfield's new crystal glass sculpture 'The Bell Jar VR' as a solo exhibition of the monumental artwork in a curvilinear space designed by the artist. Vsitors interact with the translucent form amidst a swirl of I-shadows on ceiling, walls, and floor as light values change across day and night, a deeply immersive world entered through the Museum web portal.

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Nov. 2021. 'Sculpture & Art in Residence' curated by SCAPE Public Art presents leading NZ Aotearoa sculptors including Bill Culbert (1935-2019), Robert Jahnke, Brett Graham, Greer Twiss, Neil Dawson, and Sione Monū. Three artworks by Gill Gatfield are presented in this summer season highlight exhibition: Mirror Image, a glass mirage, in the elegant grounds of Studio 125 Gallery, and two abstract figures - Suffragette and Siren, inside.  Studio 125 Gallery, 125 Aikmans Rd. Merivale, Christchurch NZ.

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At Metro Arts Gallery in Meanjin Brisbane a panel explores economic, cultural and political drivers behind project concepts in the exhibition 'Conversations on Shadow Architecture'. Nick Barker, professor of strategy and sustainability at Griffiths University opens the panel with a short talk, followed by Q&A with Clare Kennedy of architecture studio Five Mile Radius and exhibition curator Ineke Dane.

Oct. 2021. In and beyond the frame of Critical Spatial Practice, Conversations on Shadow Architecture is presented by Metro Arts public gallery in Meanjin Brisbane Australia. Across two gallery spaces, the multidisciplinary exhibition presents work by international and Australian artists: Tarik Ahlip, Heba Y. Amin, Richard Bell, Lauren Brincat, Five Mile Radius, Gill Gatfield, Dale Harding, Fionnuala Heidenreich, HWKN, Simon James Phillips, Valentina Karga, Nicolas Kisic Aguirre, Anri Sala.

Curated by Ineke Dane | Supported by: Arts Queensland & Australia Council for the Arts
Image: Gill Gatfield, Multiple Choice (Carrara marble, Indian granite, 90mmH x 500mm Dia.)

Conversations on Shadow Architecture 2021 CATALOGUE 

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