Monographic catalogue examining the forcefield of relations artist Joyce
Campbell has activated between photography,
philosophy, ecology,
material history, science
fiction, and the care and reading of sacred and symbolic landscapes,
over the course of her near three-decade career.
On the Last Afternoon: Disrupted Ecologies and the Work of Joyce
Campbell offers a number of portholes into the relations between
photography, philosophy, ecology, material history, science fiction, and
the care and reading of sacred and symbolic landscapes, as they have been
engaged by artist Joyce Campbell over her near three-decade career. Richly
illustrated with a full array of her various bodies of work in
photography, film, and video, the publication complements and extends her
major 2019 exhibition at Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi in Wellington,
Aotearoa New Zealand. Bringing together new and existing writings by
Christina Barton, Geoffrey Batchen, Elizabeth Grosz, Richard Niania,
Bernard Stiegler, Mark von Schlegell,
and John C. Welchman with the embedded
wisdom and inherited narratives of her Māori and Pākehā collaborators,
Campbell demonstrates the interconnectedness of complex biological,
spiritual, and representational systems, and the potential of photography
to resist the global techno-capitalist hegemony that underpins the
exponential collapse of biodiversity and the decline of spirit in our
contemporary era.
Raised in Aotearoa New Zealand's rural hinterland, before spending a
decade in Southern California, Campbell's biography mirrors her practice,
oscillating between New Zealand's verdant coasts and the smog-choked,
climate-stressed systems of the Californian deserts. She has photographed
in extreme conditions in North America, New Zealand, and Antarctica, using
the full panoply of techniques from photography's two-hundred-year
history. This publication is the outcome of a close collaboration with
volume editor and contributor John C. Welchman (Professor of Art History,
Theory and Criticism, University of California, San Diego, and Chair, Mike
Kelley Foundation for the Arts).
Published following the eponymous exhibition at Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka
Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, from July 27 to October 20, 2019.
Joyce Campbell (born 1971 in New Zealand, lives and works in Wairoa, New
Zealand and Los Angeles) is an interdisciplinary artist working in photography,
film and video and sculpture,
who's recent work utilizes anachronistic photographic techniques to
examine the collision of natural and cultural systems. She is a senior
lecturer at the University of Auckland Elam School of the Arts and has
lectured in studio art at University of California, Los Angeles, Claremont
Graduate University, Scripps College, University of California, Irvine,
and California State University, Northridge while occasionally working as
a freelance curator and art writer.
She has participated in numerous exhibitions both in New Zealand and
abroad including “Heavenly Bodies”, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 2014;
“Che Mondo: What a World”, Curated by Carole Ann Klonarides, Los Angeles
Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, USA, 2013; “Te Taniwha/Crown Coach”,
Nichols Gallery, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA September 2012; “The Liquid
Archive”, Curated by Geraldine Barlow, Monash University Museum of Art,
Melbourne, Australia, 2012; “Altogether Elsewhere”, Curated by Rob Tufnell
for the Zoo Art Fair, London, Great Britain, 2009; “Photoquai. 2e Biennale
des images du monde”, Curated by Anne Noble, Musee du Quai Branly, Paris,
France, 2009; 2007 Incheon International Women Artist's Biennale, Curated
by John Welchman, Incheon Arts and Cultural Center, Incheon, Korea, 2007
and “Every Day: The 11th Biennale of Sydney”, Gallery of New South Wales,
Sydney, Australia, 1998. In 2006, she was selected as one of the
Antarctica New Zealand/Creative New Zealand Artists to Antarctica
Programme awardees. In 2007, she was awarded an ARC Grant from The Durfee
Foundation.
Edited by John C. Welchman.
Contributions by Christina Barton, Geoffrey Batchen, Joyce Campbell,
Elizabeth Grosz, Tungāne Kani, Apikara Niania, Richard Niania, Mark
von Schlegell, George Smith, Sebastian Smith, Vicky Smith, Bernard Stiegler, John C. Welchman.
Graphic design: Amanda Wright / New Public.
Published with the Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of
Wellington.
