Joanna Langford
The High Country
Biography:
Joanna Langford, New Zealand
Dunedin based artist Joanna Langford graduated from Canterbury University in 2004 with a Master of Fine Arts (Painting). She received the 2006 Olivia Spencer-Bower Fellow award and is the 2010 Frances Hodgkins Fellow, Otago University. The artist has exhibited her work in numerous exhibitions. Solo exhibitions of Langford’s work include The Landless, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, 2009; The Beautiful and the Damned, Michael Hirschfeld Gallery, Wellington City Gallery, Wellington, 2008; Twilight Falls, Open window Series, Govett-Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth, 2008; and The Wanderers, Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland, 2005. Her work has also been featured in a solo exhibition of the work of Joanna Langford, 2009; The Quietening, 2007 and Jitterbug, 2005 all at the Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch. Like many of the SCAPE 2011 artists, Langford’s artwork utilises recycled or reused materials as a key thread of her process.
By taking advantage of the 320,000 kilometres (close to eight times the circumference of the Earth) of plastic film that is disposed of every year, the artist creates light and almost utopian fantasy environments through an adept transformation of the materials. She is committed to using existing found or recycled materials emphasising the lightness with which her work touches or impacts upon the physical environment in the most practical of ways - allowing the viewer to engage with her imaginative view.
Joanna Langford’s work is a whimsical, visionary manifestation of a utopian city in the sky produced with recycled and existing materials.
Previously designed for a site now in the city's red zone, Langford's work will be located within a temporarily rebuilt and newly reopened section of the damanged inner-city, throwing into contrast Langford's vision for future redevelopment and Christchurch's new urban landscape.
Location and date - Negotiations continue to re-site Joanna Landford's 6th SCAPE artwork within the 2011 calendar year
Joanna Langford, artist’s visualization, 'The High Country', 2010.
