I returned back in NZ just in time to attend the opening of the Trust Waikato National Contemporary Art Award. Having just spent 2 months in the U.S. I enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with NZ culture at the Waikato Museum Friday night September 4th.  The atmosphere was festive and full of anticipation.  I am not certain if the actual exhibition lived up to the expectation of the crowd but time will tell as responses come in.

  As for me, I was pleased to have been selected by Charlotte Huddleston, Curator of Contemporary Art at NZ's national Museum, Te Papa.  I was pleased, also, to see so many videos works, though I thought that few pushed the concept of the chosen media.  The imagery was interesting but the presentation seemed to lack due consideration.

  I continue to search for a way to combine technology with the handmade.

  My artist statement for my entry in the Trust Waikato National Contemporary Art Award:

  Modern culture depends on media for communication: for the dissemination of information and entertainment. But, in a world of media overload and viewer expectation, the unique expressive qualities of the individual may get lost in the prescriptive presentation of information, leaving little room for independent dialogue with newly encountered images.

  This work continues my exploration of documenting the ordinary.  My intention in "Girl Talk" is to interrogate and situate conventional understandings and expectations of media in the context of modern culture while also addressing the issue of technical reproduction vs. the handmade.

  This work combines a silent black and white video of a young woman expressively speaking, with an ink drawing duplication of a page from "Bridget Jones' Diary" in Spanish.

Copyright © 2008 - 2011 Leslie Falls | Email: artist@lesliefalls.com