Console Whispers Nick Austin, Campbell Patterson and Ed Ritchie
Console Whispers brings together the work of three Ōtepoti Dunedin based practitioners, Nick Austin, Campbell Patterson and Ed Ritchie. The exhibition emerges as a singular exhibition of three separate practices, bound by an observation of the artists’ use and precarious relationship with time. Console Whispers touches on ideas of sustainability within practices, including newly produced works as well as works produced ten years earlier by some, creating comical connections to one another throughout.
Nick Austin lives and works in Ōtepoti. He has a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Auckland University of Technology (2001) and a Master of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland (2004). In 2012 he was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago / Te Whare Wānanga o Otāgo. Recent exhibitions include: Classroom Newsletter, Ankles, Sydney (2018); Paleo Apartments, Hopkinson Mossman, Tāmaki Makaurau (2017); Ridiculous Sublime, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Ōtepoti (2016); Where Sugar Lives, Laurel Doody, Los Angeles (2015); Necessary Distraction: A Painting Show, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Tāmaki Makaurau (2015); Time’s Sieve, Peter McLeavey Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara (2014); The Liquid Dossier, Hocken Gallery, Ōtepoti (2013).
Campbell Patterson was born in Portsmouth, England in 1983 and currently lives and works in Ōtepoti Dunedin.. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts in 2006 and was awarded the University of Otago Frances Hodgkins Fellowship in 2017 and Artist in Residence at McCahon House in 2015. Recent exhibitions include: diaries, Michael Lett, Tāmaki Makaurau (2019); toot floor, The Pah Homestead, Tāmaki Makaurau (2019); toot floor, Hocken Collections, Ōtepoti (2018); call sick, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Ōtepoti (2017); Art as a Verb, Artspace, Sydney (2015); Made Active: The Chartwell Show, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Tāmaki Makaurau (2012).
Based in Ōtepoti Ed Ritchie (b. 1995) has a predominantly object-focused practice, working with a range of found materials, often responding to architectural attributes of given space or echoing familiar mechanisms in their assemblage. Trained under the broad umbrella of the Dunedin School of Art Sculpture Department at Otago Polytechnic, Ritchie completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Hons) in 2017 and has since become a founder and co-facilitator of ARI Laurel Projects. Recent exhibitions include: cul de sac curated by Chloe Geoghegan, RM, Tāmaki Makaurau (2018); Floating host, XXX Gallery, Ōtepoti (2018); Let me know by next week curated by Holly Aitchison, Blue Oyster Art Project Space, Ōtepoti (2016).
