Projects
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Publications
Sean Kerr: Bruce is in the garden; so someone is in the garden The book Bruce is in the garden; so someone is in the garden is a survey of the work of Sean Kerr since the early 90s. Known for his employment of technology to make astute-fraught-bitten-comic situations, object-entities and good-natured affronts, he has also made a large and influential body of work in sound, installation, video and 2D formats. This major publication has been lead and interrupted by the artist, making the resulting book a strange monograph–artist’s book hybrid. It includes writing by Jan Bryant, Zita Joyce + Adam Willetts, Tessa Laird, Emma Bugden, Andrew Clifford, Jon Bywater and an interview by Tobias Berger, it also features an extensive pictorial chronology of his gregariously varied practice. Bruce is in the garden; so someone is in the garden was produced as a parallel project to the 2010 exhibition of Kerr’s work, Sean Kerr: Bruce danced if Victoria sang, and Victoria sang: so Bruce danced, curated by Emma Bugden and Andrew Clifford at Artspace, Auckland and the Gus Fisher Gallery at the University of Auckland. Both publication and exhibition projects have received major funding from the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts Research Fund. Texts by Jan Bryant, Zita Joyce + Adam Willetts, Tessa Laird, Emma Bugden, Andrew Clifford, Jon Bywater and Tobias Berger. Published by Clouds, March 2011, ISBN: 978-0-9864628-0-1, Hardcover, 164 pages, 190 colour images, 18 black/white images, English, Edition: 800, Dimensions: 176 x 246 x 17 mm, Weight: 250gm, Flow-wrapped. Order book: Clouds Publishing Sean Kerr: Pop Sean Kerr: Pop is an artist’s book of concept drawings replete with a gorgeous die-cut tunnel and a new essay by Natasha Conland. The drawings collated for this volume float above projects executed by Kerr from the very late nineties until the present day. As such it operates as a spectral-partial survey catalogue for an exhibition that only exists as a sketch sandwiched between the white hardcovers of this new book. The book itself has the dimensions and object-feel of a children’s storybook, and this is no coincidence. As the insightful essay by Conland details, particular forms of simple humour where the fall-person thinks s/he is smarter than s/he is, are the spine of this bubbling, chattering, clicking, whirring and exploding body of work. Kerr’s work tends to be let down by the term New Media. Kerr employs technology, yes, but there is so much life breathed into his many schemes, by way of the various characters and situation comedies he has presented us with, that he makes the monster of technological stock-in-trades walk and talk. These drawings – some hand-wrought and some out-putted, along with digital grabs of studies rendered in computerland – have the air of being made by a well-meaning, very sweet computer that just wants to join in, or even help. This cleverly conceived book gently complicates any idea of a simple successful, adult relationship between man and machine. Essay by Natasha Conland Published by Clouds and Michael Lett, May 2009, ISBN: 978-0-9582981-3-1, Hardcover, 64 pages, Colour & Black/white images, English Edition: 500, Dimensions: 195 x 260 x 11 mm, Weight: 406 gm, Individually shrinkwrapped. Order book: Clouds Publishing |
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BIO |
| Sean Kerr lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand, where he is a Associate Professor at Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. He is the Programme Leader for the Fine Arts Doctoral Programmes, specialises in Real-time 3d, VR and interactive technologies, and has a produced two books, Bruce is in the garden, so someone is in the garden, and Pop. Both were published by Clouds publishing.
Selected exhibitions include: In Kahoots, Real-time 3d Installation, in collaboration with Judy Darragh, Christchurch Art Gallery, 2020-2021; What’s it Doing?, Mixed media, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tamaki, 2013-2014; Song and Dance, The Physics Room, Christchurch, 2012; Super music, Superdeluxe, Tokyo, 2011; Run Artist Run, 55 Sydenham, Sydney; Donkey Pong, I.C.A.N. Sydney, 2011; Bruce danced if Victoria sang, and Victoria sang; so Bruce danced, part II , The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, 2011; Bruce danced if Victoria sang, and Victoria sang; so Bruce danced, part I ,Artspace and Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, 2010; CMC, Superdeluxe, Sydney Biennale, Sydney, 2010; Ping Pong Pop, Electrosmog, Debalie, Amsterdam, 2010;Friends Reunited Part 3,Mirror States, Campbelltown Public Art Gallery, Sydney, 2008; Music 4 4 Blackberrys, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, 2007; Neigh-bourhood Watch, SCAPE, Christchurch, 2006; Music 4 100 Computers, Rhizome.org Commission, New York, 2006; The Mountain, Prospect 2004, Wellington, 2004; The Conversation, Seoul Biennale, Seoul, 2002; and The Binney Project, Te Papa Tongarewa, Museum of New Zealand, 2002. |
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