Eddie Clemens
CV
Born: 1977, Rotorua, Aotearoa New Zealand
Lives and works: Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
Website: www.eddieclemens.com
Instagram: @eddieclemens
Email: eddieclemens@gmail.com
Education
2004
MFA (Honours), Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, New Zealand
2000
BFA, Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
Residencies
2015
Youkobo Artspace, Tokyo, Japan. Asia New Zealand (Inaugural recipient)
2009
Frances Hodgkins Fellowship, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
2008
Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation, Christchurch Art Centre, New Zealand
Artist Statement
My practice takes place in the interstices between film, performance and sculpture. I combine fabrication, prototyping, video editing and photography to unlock unconventional, orthogonal avenues of investigation. My works form an ongoing discussion around the idea that the artefacts of physical culture are carriers for narratives, links in an expansive and cryptic informational matrix that is indistinguishable from the everyday.
For Total Internal Reflection (2012), I prototyped and fabricated a fibre-optic broom that records the movements involved in its use and replays the patterns as a seemingly random sequence of coloured lights. The everyday object thus becomes an informational conduit, its bristles becoming pixels in a display and its user becoming part of a cybernetic system.
For the video work Screen Used (2015), I took as a starting point a screen-used prop hand from the 1991 film Terminator 2, extrapolating an array of cultural linkages. The inert, distorted hand becomes a totem representing the body’s erosion and reconfiguration via technology.
In Auckland Jean’s Shop (2015), I investigated the connection between the titular shop in Nishi-Ogikubo, Tokyo (discovered by chance while on residency), and the New Zealand city it is named after. Through engaging with the local community in Japan, the idea of New Zealand emerged as an aspirational emblem of the exotic, fused with the omnipresent American-globalist identity suggested by denim jeans.
Clone Cities (2016) further explored these ideas. I travelled to the “sister cities” of my hometown Rotorua, met with mayors and local leaders, and entered a sculptural element of the work as a float in the Rotorua Santa Parade. In my work, place, nationhood and belonging are negotiable parts of a diffuse, flexible narrative.
My recent work has focused on ideas of time and subjectivity, building on my interest in cinema and the narrative potential of physical objects. In Cognitive Reorientation (2022–25), a suspended, water-logged vehicle becomes the locus for an infinitely prolonged moment of suspense — a crime scene lacking evidence other than the leaky, mutable object itself, permanently arrested at the point of potential closure.
In Fibre-Optic Colonnade Car Wash (2025), a series of fibre-optic rollers suspended from the ceiling display moving patterns of light and colour, illuminating the urban environment while alluding to the experience of a commercial car wash. As pedestrians walk through the colonnade, they are washed by light, briefly separated and ensnared in a moment of informational and luminous uncertainty.
Selected Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
2025
Fibre-Optic Colonnade Car Wash, permanent public sculpture, Shed 21, 28 Waterloo Quay, Wellington. Commissioned by Wellington Sculpture Trust.
2024–25
Cognitive Reorientation (Dodge Monaco, 1977), Inaugural Abu Dhabi Public Sculpture Biennale, UAE.
Cognitive Reorientation (Mitsubishi Debonair V3000, 1986), Sculpture On The Gulf, Auckland.
2022–23
Cognitive Reorientation (Mitsubishi Debonair V3000, 1986), SCAPE, Christchurch.
Resolution Venture, Te Wai Ngutu Kākā (formerly ST Paul St Gallery), Auckland.
2021
Auckland Art Fair, Visions Gallery (formerly Bowerbank Ninow Gallery).
2020
Kiosk: Directors’ Commentary, The Physics Room, Christchurch.
Collections
Société BIC, Paris
Auckland Art Gallery
Christchurch Art Gallery
Guy and Myriam Ullens
Selected Bibliography
Hurrell, John. Interactive Eddie Clemens at AUT, 2023
As seen on TV: classic car takes flight in the name of your favourite cop show, Christchurch, reporter, 15:32, Nov 04 2022
Law, Tina. Christchurch artwork attracts visitors, slime, and gulls, 19:23, Jan 12 2023
Wood, Andrew Paul. Artbeat, Sun 4 Dec 2022
Hope, James. A response to Kiosk: Directors’ Commentary, 2020
Clark, Andrew. First Edition, Third Hand, 2019
Clark, Andrew. Resembling the Hazards of Life Itself, 2017
Dunn, Megan. Unboxed and Unstoppable, Art News, Winter issue, 2016
Douglas, Jessica. A Little Bit Different: Considering Eddie Clemens' 'Clone Cities’, 2016
Philips, Bruce. Auckland Jean's Shop, Catalogue essay, Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo, 2015
Munn, Luke. Screen Used, Exhibition essay, GLOVEBOX, Auckland, 2015
Mabey, Claire. Clemens at the Adam, Eyecontact, 2014
Jameson, Emma. Layers of Self-Reflexivity, Eyecontact, 2014
Boswell, Rebecca. Wes Craven Marina, Exhibition essay, Gloria Knight, Auckland, 2014
Clifford, Andrew. Total Internal Reflection, catalogue essay (PDF), Gus Fisher Gallery, University of Auckland, 2012
Tan, Leon. Human in the Loop, Catalogue essay (PDF), SOFA, Ilam School of Fine Art, Canterbury University, 2012
Lister, Aaron. Obstinate Object, Exhibition essay, City Gallery Wellington, 2012
Hurrell, John. Contemporary Physicals, Modern Physics, 2009
Hurrell, John. Clemens Pulses at Crockford’s, 2010
Winn, Hamish. Captive, Exhibition essay, 2008
Winn, Hamish. Showstoppers, catalogue
Hurrell, John. Delusional Architecture, Sue Crockford Gallery, 2010
Hurrell, John. Review of Captive, Sue Crockford Gallery, 2008
Tan, Leon. Orchestrating the Perverse, Exhibition essay, 2016
Wood, Andrew Paul. Distinct Lack of Gravitas, Artbash, 2007
Mossman, Danae. Centre of Gravity and Beyond, Exhibition essay, The Physics Room, Christchurch, 2007
Were, Virginia. Repetition and Multiplicity, Art News, 2006
Irish, Gina. &: Ampersand, Art New Zealand, 113, Summer 2004-05
