Fiona Amundsen: Walters Prize nominee
AUT Visual Arts Senior Lecturer Fiona Amundsen has been named as one of the finalists of this year’s Walters Prize.
The Walters Prize is Aotearoa New Zealand’s most significant contemporary art award. This is its tenth year running. Artworks are selected for their outstanding contributions to contemporary art in New Zealand in the preceding two-year period.
Amundsen’s artwork A Body That Lives, 2018 was first exhibited at ST PAUL St Gallery. The artwork brings together photography and video footage associated with the Asia-Pacific theatre in World War II, using both archival and present-day footage in installation.
The Jury says, “Amundsen’s ethical commitment to her collaborators telling their stories is supported by the ongoing relationships she has developed in making the work, and through the device of the ‘listening’ camera. Amundsen’s reflections on the artist-filmmaker’s responsibilities reveals a sensitivity and respect presented through the raw honesty of cinema’s basic elements and this filmmaker’s humility.”
Amundsen is honoured and excited to be nominated. She says, “Making these photographs and videos with the four people who shared their stories and experiences with me has been a life-giving experience. I remain moved by the kindness, trust and care that emerged from our relationships and that was extended to the resulting artworks that came out of our many meetings.”
“It is humbling to think that the artworks have impacted the jury members too; that they communicated something of the specialness of those four relationships and the histories they represent.”