Changing Practice, Cat Auburn, 2019
cat auburn
Cat Auburn joined us as D6's artist in residence as part of our current programme, There is Beauty in this Journey from May 2019.
Within her practice Cat researches how material culture interrogates systems of power. Whilst in residence Cat turned this reflection inwards, and she began to decode her creative practice in relation to her own cultural heritage. By looking towards her personal identity and relationship with certain systems of power - colonialism and whiteness - she explored how her methods of working as an artist are influenced by these systems.
As a pākehā (a white New Zealander of European descent) Cat's relationship with immigration in Britain is complex: she has an insider’s cultural privilege due to the colour of her skin and her Commonwealth links, yet she is also an outsider affected by the alarming anti-immigration policy-making and rhetoric of contemporary Brexit-era Britain.
Cat recorded these thoughts throughout the residency in a series of video diaries launched on Mural, our multimedia storytelling platform.
Please view the work by clicking here.
Changing Practice is best experienced through Firefox or Google Chrome.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Cat Auburn is an artist from New Zealand, currently based in the North East of England. Her interdisciplinary art practice explores secondary or hidden narratives; investigating how culture is constructed, reinforced, and strategically employed.
After graduating from the MFA programme at Northumbria University (UK) Cat was the 2016 Tyneside Cinema Graduate Artist in Residence (UK) during this time collaborated with European heritage sites in Vienna, Glasgow and Northumberland to develop a new moving image work called ‘Preparing the Ground’. A subsequent section of ‘Preparing the Ground’ was completed in 2017 in Kyoto, Japan. Cat will collaborate on the musical score for ‘Preparing the Ground’ with internationally acclaimed composer, Gareth Farr (OBE).
Cat was the recipient of the 2016 Award for Best Regional Art Exhibition at the New Zealand Museum Awards, in recognition for her exhibition ‘The Horses Stayed Behind’. This exhibition has finished its third year of a national exhibition tour of New Zealand and was created during the 2014/2015 Tylee Cottage Artist Residency with the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui, (NZ). In 2015, Cat represented New Zealand at the TRIO Biennial in Brazil and has also exhibited widely across her home country with solo exhibitions at the Sarjeant Gallery, Dowse Art Museum, Te Manawa Museum, Waikato Museum and Tauranga Art Gallery.
In August 2018 her short film, ‘Shaken’ (commissioned by Northern Film and Media in collaboration with Channel 4) was broadcast on national UK television and was officially selected for the 2018 Aesthetica Short Film Festival (UK).
Find Cat's website here: catauburn.com
Within her practice Cat researches how material culture interrogates systems of power. Whilst in residence Cat turned this reflection inwards, and she began to decode her creative practice in relation to her own cultural heritage. By looking towards her personal identity and relationship with certain systems of power - colonialism and whiteness - she explored how her methods of working as an artist are influenced by these systems.
As a pākehā (a white New Zealander of European descent) Cat's relationship with immigration in Britain is complex: she has an insider’s cultural privilege due to the colour of her skin and her Commonwealth links, yet she is also an outsider affected by the alarming anti-immigration policy-making and rhetoric of contemporary Brexit-era Britain.
Cat recorded these thoughts throughout the residency in a series of video diaries launched on Mural, our multimedia storytelling platform.
Please view the work by clicking here.
Changing Practice is best experienced through Firefox or Google Chrome.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Cat Auburn is an artist from New Zealand, currently based in the North East of England. Her interdisciplinary art practice explores secondary or hidden narratives; investigating how culture is constructed, reinforced, and strategically employed.
After graduating from the MFA programme at Northumbria University (UK) Cat was the 2016 Tyneside Cinema Graduate Artist in Residence (UK) during this time collaborated with European heritage sites in Vienna, Glasgow and Northumberland to develop a new moving image work called ‘Preparing the Ground’. A subsequent section of ‘Preparing the Ground’ was completed in 2017 in Kyoto, Japan. Cat will collaborate on the musical score for ‘Preparing the Ground’ with internationally acclaimed composer, Gareth Farr (OBE).
Cat was the recipient of the 2016 Award for Best Regional Art Exhibition at the New Zealand Museum Awards, in recognition for her exhibition ‘The Horses Stayed Behind’. This exhibition has finished its third year of a national exhibition tour of New Zealand and was created during the 2014/2015 Tylee Cottage Artist Residency with the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui, (NZ). In 2015, Cat represented New Zealand at the TRIO Biennial in Brazil and has also exhibited widely across her home country with solo exhibitions at the Sarjeant Gallery, Dowse Art Museum, Te Manawa Museum, Waikato Museum and Tauranga Art Gallery.
In August 2018 her short film, ‘Shaken’ (commissioned by Northern Film and Media in collaboration with Channel 4) was broadcast on national UK television and was officially selected for the 2018 Aesthetica Short Film Festival (UK).
Find Cat's website here: catauburn.com