“I am a post disciplinary artist born in New Zealand/Aotearoa. My first costume was an Aladdin costume for a fancy-dress-up for a fancy-dress party. I made the pattern and sewed the costume, with the assistance of my mother Madeleine, in 1977 when I was five.

My practice led PhD ‘Costume in Art Education and Institution’, (Chelsea College, University of The Arts London, supervisors Dave Beech, Malcolm Quinn and external advisor Carol Tulloch) attempts through practice to address the under-theorised role of costume within the context of contemporary art.

While in residence at Joya: AiR, I continued to explore my research practice interest in costume along with personal history/archive, anecdote, environment and landscape”…

“Blue Ted is from memory, a life size to scale replica of Blue Ted, my first teddy bear which my grandmother purchased for me when I was newly born. Rather than making the bear costume so that it covers the entire body, my intention was to make the dimensions accurate to scale for the actual bear. These dimensions highlight the fact that I was/am not trying to create a seamless illusion of Blue Ted, I am presenting Blue Ted as an uncanny impossibility. Blue Ted is illustrative in that it gives a recognisable outline of a Teddy bear/Blue Ted. The human body (my arms and legs sticking out of the costume / garment) suggests a hybrid symbiosis between Blue Ted and myself as the wearer of Blue Ted, which in turn shows that Blue Ted is also a form of human experience”.

“I was wearing my tiger print swimming togs inside Blue Ted in Andalusia in the arid climate where many Spaghetti Westerns were filmed such as ‘The Good the Bad and The Ugly’. It’s soundtrack, which I own on vinyl, I often listened to it whilst at art school. While I was walking around the dry landscape becoming Blue Ted the temperature was often forty degrees. With only the soundtrack in my mind (as I could not see and could barely breathe through a tube behind Blue Ted’s right ear), I was reminded of the legacy of the films created in this unique landscape. I was also thinking about the Sierra del Oso (Oso being the bear in Castellano) that I could see on the horizon when not inside Blue Ted. The Sierra got the name because bears once lived there, no more. I thought about the origins of the ‘Teddy Bear’, and how Theodore Roosevelt did not want to shoot a bear that had been tied up, saying “it’s not fair game”.

Walking over dry rough ground barefoot, continually being prickled, the sounds of the crunch of the foot to ground/prickle, resonating, along with noises of local insects, flies, cicadas… and wind”...

“I also thought about the vast landscape with the various horizons, yet I could only see the darkness of the inside of Blue Ted, cotton lining, polyester stuffing/filling and breathing tube pressed up against my face. I wondered why I often make costumes for myself to inhabit which are uncomfortable for the wearer/me. What was I getting from being Blue Ted in the environment, was I restricted or enabled or both, what would other people get from seeing/experiencing Blue Ted in that type of landscape, especially within the context of Covid? The way humans are currently conditioned to experience public space has been predetermined by threat. Was Blue Ted walking around in a public space. If so what type of public space. Was Blue Ted a threat? During my two-week stay at Joya: AiR living within Blue Ted, outside of the resident artists and founders of Joya: AiR I only encountered three other people. One sheep farmer a few kilometres up the road and two men who drove a water truck to fill up the irrigation tank”...

“Why was it important for me as an aging artist to summon Blue Ted at this stage of my life? I am more than aware the original Blue Ted (about 25cm high) was packed up and put into my parent’s Pukeuri stables against the dirt. Left to rot without my knowledge. When I last encountered the original, I picked up a black plastic bag, seemingly full of dirt. Which must have been my bears, Blue Ted included. Did I remake Blue Ted as a garment to test out if he functioned like a costume. I am wondering. Was I rewilding myself through the isolation of the landscape and the further abstraction of experiencing it through the context of inhabiting Blue Ted – as a performative costume”?

Amanda Newall

P:S. I’d like to thank fellow Joya: AiR Laura van de Lisdonk for her help in photographing and videoing my work during the residency.

BIO:

I am a post disciplinary/post object artist. Making skills drive my artistic production. This contradiction - provides mystery and interest for my pattern making. Giving me scope to fully explore artistic forms and production methods in new experimental ways. My PhD ‘Costume in Art Education and Institution’ University of the Arts London. I develop ideas through my bespoke costumes, often only used once, as a form of drawing out ideas and to activate agency. Sculpture, intermedia, sound, moving image, storytelling, performance and enactment feed into my art. Costume for me is a key art artform/artefact. Born in Aotearoa/New Zealand I am currently Swedish residing in London. Previously I worked as Senior lecturer in Sculpture at The Royal Institute of Art/ Kunglia Konsthogskolan Stockholm, Sweden 2009-14, and Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Art, Britain, 2005-2009. During 2021 I will move to Beijing, China where my Swedish born partner works in Culture for the Swedish Government.

I have received awards and funding in NZ, the UK and Sweden, including arts council funding, Sir James Wallace, IASPIS, STINT. I am the recipient of the Olivia Spencer Bower Award 2021- differed to 2022 due to Covid. I have exhibited in Australasia, America, Britain, Argentina and Europe since 1996.

Links to previous moving image works and publications:

Hotel Jaguar, Exposed Arts Projects, Kensington, London.
Curated by Sasha Burkhanova-Khabadze.
Contemporary Hum essay/review Hotel Jaguar- David Lillington. 11.10.2018 https://www.contemporaryhum.com/amanda-newall-hotel-jaguar https://www.contemporaryhum.com/essays-archive
Eye Contact article Hotel Jaguar – Garth Cartwright. https://eyecontactmagazine.com/2018/08/amanda-newalls-hotel-jaguar

Public Dreaming, Momentum 9, Alienation, The Nordic Biennial, Punkt O, Moss Norway, 2017. http://momentum9.no/contributor/amanda-newall-and-leon-tan/Traders Z33, Hasselt, Belgium 2017; Skanes Konstforening, Malmo Sweden 2017. Berlin Art Link video including footage with Newall about Public Dreaming: https://www.berlinartlink.com/2017/08/03/video-momentum-9-nordic-biennial-of-contem- porary-art-alienation/SHARING DREAMS – DIE DREAM CLINIC VON AMANDA NEWALL UND LEON TAN http://www.yeast-art-of-sharing.de/2017/07/ raum-fuer-traeumer-die-dream-clinic-von-amanda-newall-und-leon

The Hoover Diaries, The Audio Foundation, Wellington NZ, Geraldine Cinema, NZ, Diaries, Wunder Bar Lyttelton NZ, Pyramid Space, Wellington NZ. (pro- grammed by Mark Williams -Circuit Artist Film and Moving Image, Aotearoa), Twenty Third and Fourth Street, New York (space run by-Igor Vamos aka Mike Bonanno from The Yes Men).
Link to: The Hoover Diaries trailer- https://www.circuit.org.nz/film/the-hoover-diaries-trailer

Full-length film- The Hoover Diaries., duration 40mins- https://vimeo.com/157753543 PASSWORD: 40test; Pod cast review with Mark Amery- https://sound- cloud.com/circuit-2/episode-45-the-hoover-diaries; Article in The New Zealand Herald, Vicki Anderson, Jul 15.2016 http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/82106727/The-Hoover-Diaries-the-Mockers-murders-and-1980s-Timaru

Projektet Fremantle Art Centre, curated by Ric Spencer, 2012- in connection to SymbioticA residency, school of human anatomy, Perth, Western Australia. https://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/residents/amanda-newall-and-ola-johansson https://www.fac.org.au/whats-on/post/ola-johansson-amanda-newall-projektet/

Education
Practice led PhD, Costume in Art Education and Institution, Supervisors Professors Malcolm Quin and Dave Beech, advisor Carol Tulloch, Chelsea College, University of The Arts, London, UK. Master of Fine Arts, Phil Dadson supervisor, specialising in Intermedia, Elam School of Fine Art, University of Auckland Aotearoa/New Zealand (2002-2004) Post Graduate Diploma Fine Arts, Phil Dadson supervisor, specialising in Intermedia, Elam School of Fine Art, University of Auckland Aotearoa/New Zealand (2000-2001) Bachelor of Fine Arts, Sculpture, Supervisor Andrew Drummond, Ilam School of Fine Art, University of Canterbury, Aotearoa/New Zealand (1992-1996).

Selected group Exhibitions:
The Junction, Otautahi Christchurch, New Zealand 2020.
Sculpture on The Peninsula, Austin Tea Rooms, New Zealand London Farm, Teddington Aotearoa/New Zealand, 2019. Local press including a mention of the work - https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/117232716/sculpture-on-the-peninsula--epic-art-on-canterburys-cultural-landscape
The Edge, Folkstone Fringe Festival, in connection to the Folkestone Triennial, United Kingdom, curated by Diane Dever and Lewis Biggs, 2017.
Solar Circuit, SCANZ Aotearoa, Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth NZ/Aotearoa, 2009.Curated by Mercedes Vicente and Sarah CookFrom from an ini- tial call for proposals for the exhibition, Mercedes Vicente, Govett-Brewster curator, and Sarah Cook, UK guest co-curator, have selected eight projects by Stella Brennan (NZ), Nina Czegledy Greg Judelman Daniel Barber (Canada), Sean Kerr (NZ), Naomi Lamb (NZ), Alex Monteith (NZ), Sally Jane Norman Jacques Sirot (NZ/France), Amanda Newall (NZ), The Polytechnic (UK) and Dan Torop (USA). Mostly Harmless, Govett Brewster Gallery, New Plymouth NZ/Aotearoa, 2006. Curated by Charlotte Huddleston, post object- performance driven works were the focus of the show, other artists included Carey Young UK and Jim Allen, Daniel Malone. Inspiration to Order, Visual Intelligences, curated by Rebecca Elliot Fortnum, exhibited in both CSUS Gallery, California, USA 2006, and Winchester, WCA, U.K, 2007. Other artists included Vong Phaophanit, Michael Ginsborg and Paula Kane http://www.visualintelligences.com/inspiration-to-or- der.html

Joya: AiR / Amanda Newall / NZ