Auckland Council has announced Kate van der Drift as its 2024 Artist in Residence.
Ms van der Drift will take up her residency in Waitawa Regional Park later this year.
The Artist in Residence programme has been running since 2008 and is an opportunity for artists to live and work in an Auckland regional park for eight weeks, while creating art to highlight the incredible and sometimes overlooked natural world around them.
A multi-disciplinary artist, Ms van der Drift’s work focuses on the ecological impact of humans both on farmland and wetlands, using image, sound and video as part of her practice.
Kate often opts for a camera-free’ approach to get ‘readings’ or recordings of the land and water. Her unique style sometimes excludes light so that chemicals, sediment, bacteria and algae record the context for her.
The glowing images that result from this process have an other-worldly quality and she likens her process to eavesdropping on the environment, revealing some of the hidden interactions of nature.
During her residency, Ms van der Drift will make images or ‘prints’ from wetland locations to record their character and composition to capture the essence of Waitawa.
“Wetlands are dynamic, uncertain, and exciting places with important cultural, spiritual and biodiversity values,” Ms van der Drift said.
“I’m really looking forward to my upcoming residency at Waitawa Regional Park where I will get to work with the newly regenerating wetlands and bush.”
The Artist in Residency programme takes place from October – November 2024, and Ms van der Drift’s work will be exhibited both on the park and at a nearby gallery once the residency ends.
Ms van der Drift has a Master of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Arts. She has taught at Elam for the past few years and works as a photographer while pursuing her own art practice. She lives between Whāingaroa / Raglan and Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland.
Her work has been displayed at Sanderson Contemporary, Pah Homestead and RM Gallery, and has featured in CIRCUIT, Art Paper and My Art.
