SAIC: Frozen IN>TENSITIES – MORGAN + RICHARDS

Frozen IN>TENSITIES: Sally Morgan

SAIC
37 S Wabash Ave
Sharp building, Room 326,
Friday 15th January,

Sally J Morgan, now a New Zealand citizen, was born in the Welsh mining-town of Abertillery, and has pursued an international career as a conceptual artist specialising in performance and installation. She has presented works across the world in venues such as London’s Institute of Contemporary Art [ICA], Bristol’s Arnolfini, and galleries in Germany, France, Switzerland, Brazil, Japan, Bulgaria and the USA. Her work is held in several collections and she has also been selected to participate in a number of international showcases and biennales over many years. Morgan studied fine art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp and was later a European Fellow in Fine Art, at Exeter College of Art in England, and the Academy of the Visual Arts [Staedel Schule] in Frankfurt, Germany. She is currently based in New Zealand and has recently shown pieces in the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts in Wellington, and at Te Tuhi Gallery in Auckland, which has been recognised as the leading venue for experimental art practices in New Zealand. Sally J Morgan is a full professor at Massey University in Wellington, and is proud to have been on the faculty of Dartington College of Arts in Devon England at an earlier stage in her career.

Jess Richards is a writer and performance artist. Her debut novel, Snake Ropes, was published by Sceptre in 2012, and was shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize, the Costa First Novel Award and the Scottish Book Awards. She was awarded residencies at Cove Park in 2013 and at the Ardtornish Estate (in partnership with the Scottish Book Trust) in 2014. Her second novel, Cooking with Bones, was published by Sceptre in 2013/14. She has collaborated with Sally J Morgan on a number of projects, and has had creative writing associated with this cooperation published by the Scottish Book Trust and the UK Sunday Times. She is currently working on her third novel and has recently taken up residence in New Zealand. She is a Massey University Honorary Research Associate.

During this winter residency at the Sullivan Galleries, several international guest artists create collaborative performance projects with current SAIC students. Through museological explorations, temporary installations, live negotiations, prompts and experiments in body movement, Frozen IN>TENSITIES explores public presence and the role of the performative archive.