Julia Oram: Being Here

Being Here explores the intersection between digital processes and the traditions of painting through photography, painting and moving image. Julia Oram’s work reflects on our experience of being in the world and the passage of time, where the moving image can re-create a sense of consciousness or “being here”. Oram’s process investigates the ephemeral nature of video, and the random extraction of snapshots of movement and change that capture the process itself. The fluid nature of the work and the medium draws us in to reflect on how much we are like our world, at the same time solid and liquid, and ready to change at any moment.

The exhibition includes video and a series of experimental paintings on canvas and photographic work created from the moving images. The sometimes obscure, though recognizable, images that capture ‘”a moment in time” stand alongside the moving images to provide a context.

Leszek Kolakowski’s description of consciousness relates to this process when he states, “I am new at every moment but, by including the whole of my past in my present, I remain the same person.”

Julia Oram is an educator and multi-media artist who works with a range of strategies to produce work that straddles both the visual arts and areas of design. Oram’s broad practice allows her to respond to the physical, social or political environment to produce work that provokes dialogue.

Projects include: a large scale outdoor sculpture, ‘Bung’ for Sculpture On The Gulf 2007, the Greensleeve product design for Products and Services II, 2008 curated by Catherine David, Icycle, 2010 for Brick Bay Sculpture Park and Sky Mirror, 2010 and Sky Wand, 2011 and What the Tree Sees, 2012 for Art in the Dark, Western Park, Auckland.

Opening Saturday 2 July, 2pm to 3.30pm.

Artist talk Sunday 17 July, 2pm start.

Saturday 2 July to Wednesday 20 July

Main Gallery