Eleanor Diaz Ritson and Oscar Barber-Wilson (2023 MFA)

Eleanor Diaz Ritson and Oscar Barber-Wilson are thesis students in the Master of Fine Arts programme at Massey University. This is an exhibition of their final work as part of the College of Creative Arts 2023 graduate show EXPOSURE.

Eleanor Diaz Ritson: ANCESTRAL SEDIMENTS recognises entwined lineages to cast light on the inherent bond between the human and the geologic. As we live and move amid the archived ancestry of rock and earth, their minerals, the antecedents of our modern selves, are retained through an archival transmission of ancestral lineage that evolves within each new layer deposited. Deep-time processes draw forth the related natures of rock, lithifying human form in an amalgamation of the immortal and the transitory. The ever shifting endurance of rock-time is a contradiction to human-time and renders the gaps between aeons and instants arbitrary. A redirection of vision awakens sensorial sight, rather than eye-sight, to oppose the materialistic and short-sighted perspective humans readily employ, which allows for deeper layers to become newly perceptible at distance and with time.

Oscar Barber-Wilson: MAGIC is an online collection of eight digital hand drawn animated short films focusing on small, ordinary moments. They are presented through a recreation of an old web Flash within an interactive installation. Made through the repeated production of animated shorts, these films fuse fantasy, nostalgia, and experiences of my everyday life. Navigating towards a raw visual language, these sketchy lines, low frame counts, minimal colour, and soundscape have rekindled a love for my work, myself, and for the process of my transition.