Dane Mitchell: Conjuring Form
Art|39|Basel, 2-8 June 2008

Starkwhite is pleased to present Conjuring Form by Dane Mitchell at Art Statements from 4 to 8 June 2008, with the support of Creative New Zealand.

The critical acuity of Dane Mitchell's playful unravelings sees him collaborate with witches and psychics to explore the phantom inhabitants of art galleries, institutions, and sites of cultural significance. In his meddling with the unknown, Mitchell has commissioned witches to curse galleries, craft portals to the spirit world, and measure the shifting temperatures in the cavities of gallery walls.

For Art Statements, Art39Basel, Dane Mitchell employs the spectre of spiritualism and New Age thinking to investigate site: drawing on 'other ways of knowing.' Among this new body of work he invokes the dead (specifically the ghost of the last witch executed in Europe) with the assistance of a witch; explores the psychic residue of associated sites; speaks through objects in order to facilitate a concentrated gaze and aura-sight and enacts the spectre of an 'asport' - the transference of an object from one location to another. These works sit within Mitchell's wider strategy, examining forms of knowledge and power, enacting idiosyncratic critiques, and elucidating the conventions, customs, and pathologies that detail the mechanisms at work in the construction of culture.

Dane Mitchell lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand. In 2009 he will take up a one-year residency in the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme.

Selected solo exhibitions:
2008 Invocations, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne
Inaugural Curse, Institute of Modern Art (IMA) - TCB Space, Brisbane
2007 Barricades, Starkwhite, Auckland
2006 The Shelter or A Fear of the Touch of The Unknown, A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro
2005 Present Surface of Tell, The Physics Room, Christchurch
Empires, Starkwhite, Auckland
2004 Analysis, A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro

Selected group exhibitions:
2008 Abre Alas, A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro
The Leisure Suite, The Leroy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY
2007 Mystic Truths, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland
Rules of Engagement, Westspace, Melbourne
2006 Local Transit, Artists Space, New York, NY
Trans Versa, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago
Free New Zealand Art, Para/Site, Hong Kong
Don't Misbehave! Scape Biennial, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch
2005 Free New Zealand Art, ARTSPACE, Auckland
2004 Remember NZ, NZ Pavilion, São Paulo Biennale, São Paulo
Infiltrate, Sub Station, Singapore

Located in New Zealand on Auckland's Karangahape Road, Starkwhite presents a programme of artists' projects, solo shows, independently curated exhibitions and occasional forays into new music and other interdisciplinary practices. Starkwhite also represents artists from New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific rim.

For further information on the project, or images, please contact the gallery.

Starkwhite
510 Karangahape Road, Auckland, New Zealand
Tel. 64 9 3070703
Monday to Friday: 11.00am to 6.00pm
Saturday: 11.00am to 5.00pm
starkwhite@starkwhite.co.nz
www.starkwhite.co.nz