JULIAN DASHPER | MY SPACE

We would like to invite you to come and see My Space on Saturday 29 February from 16-18 hrs.

Julian Dashper My Space: Complete version (episodes 1-10)
Early in 2008, Dashper approached film makers Simone Horrocks and Richard Flynn with the idea of collaborating on a film project. It was important to Dashper that we remain open to the idea of where the filming might take us, but together we agreed that the film would in some way be: ‘A meditation on the meaning of success and failure in an artist’s life.’ Filming took place between June and October 2008, as Dashper travelled between Auckland, Sydney and Chicago. It was Dashper’s wish that MY SPACE be exhibited on YouTube. At the time of its world premiere on 22nd August 2010, uploads were limited to 10 minutes, so the film was designed to be seen as a series of episodes. This restriction has now been lifted, so to mark the opening of the exhibition WWW ll Julian Dashper & Girlfriends on 31st January 2017, a full-length version was uploaded, enabling the film to be seen as one complete work. Julian Dashper My Space 70 mins © Hotwire Films Ltd 2010 This film was made with the support of the Screen Innovation Production Fund.
Julian Dashper (29 February 1960 in Auckland, New Zealand – 30 July 2009), was regarded as one of New Zealand's most well known contemporary artists.

In 2001 he was awarded a senior Fulbright fellowship to be based as an artist in residence at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. Dashper's work from the last 25 years has recently been the subject of a major touring retrospective in America (the first ever such exhibition for a resident New Zealand artist), curated by Christopher Cook and David Raskin.

Dashper's work focuses on the histories, theories and more general or popular ideas of abstraction (in particular abstract painting), conceptualism and minimalism as a working methodology. The geographical positioning of New Zealand globally and how this country receives and disseminates visual information is also a core subject in Dashper's work. His practice manifests itself in various forms, including paintings, unique photographs of paintings, found objects which he infuses with abstract images, various multiples plus limited edition CD and 12" polycarbonate recordings of impromptu performances he has been involved with or heavily orchestrated. He has also produced a number of video works, some of which document or describe his installations, painting and audio recordings. In 2016, arts organisation Circuit commissioned George Clark to curate a programme of moving image works, titled This is not film-making, which invited artists Gavin Hipkins, Juliet Carpenter and Gregory Kan, Daniel Malone, Louise Menzies and Nathan Gray to make works that respond to Dashper's own writings.
Respectful, even affectionate references to local culture and art history are always present in Dashper's work, whilst his own adaptations of abstraction, conceptualism and minimalism fully acknowledge their lineage within international art. As curator (and director of the Adam Art Gallery in Wellington) Christina Barton expresses it, Dashper has "the unique perspective of attending to an internationalist art history from a distance, enabling him to devise strategies to work around his geographical isolation whilst simultaneously articulating its effects." Dashper is represented in all the major public collections in New Zealand: MCA, Sydney; Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany; Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska; The University of Auckland Art Collection; Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

Visiting scholar at the University of Sydney in 2008, Dashper lived in Auckland and travelled regularly. His first New Zealand retrospective, Julian Dashper: Professional Practice, was held at the Gus Fisher Gallery in 2010.