Berlin-Based Zac Langdon-Pole on Art Journey

Art Basel has announced that the New Zealand-born, Berlin-based artist Zac Langdon-Pole, 30, is the winner of the BMW Art Journey. An international jury unanimously selected Langdon-Pole from a shortlist of three artists whose works were exhibited in the Discoveries sector at this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong.

Langdon-Pole’s installation at Auckland gallery Michael Lett’s booth at the fair comprised a new series of works, “Passport”, for which he fused two disparate materials: iron meteorites and nautilus shells, Artforum magazine reports. By pairing objects in configurations that are different from how viewers are accustomed to seeing them, the artist challenges notions of identity and creates new narratives.

For his BMW Art Journey, Langdon-Pole will follow the flight paths of birds. Migrating birds cover some of the longest distances travelled by any living being and their routes have guided the Polynesian pathfinders across the ocean. Travelling along the Earth’s axis, through Central Europe, Southern Africa, and the Pacific Islands of Samoa and Hawaii, the artist seeks to understand how culture intersects with the science of celestial mapping – and, from there, his work flows into larger existential inquiries about who we are and how we are situated in the world.

Commenting on the proposal, titled “Sutures of the Sky”, the jury said: “The first artistic expressions of humanity, until the nineteenth century, had been largely inspired by the beauty, grandeur, and spellbinding mysteries of nature. After the Enlightenment, this view of the wonders of the world became outdated. Zac Langdon-Pole’s concept of an artist’s journey brings this sense of wonder back to art, and as an occasion for ideological and political reflection.”

Original article by Artforum, June 14, 2018.