The international artist union The Kollectiv, made up of Nour Hassan (New Zealand), Alex Close (Canada), Carlos Alejandro (US), Lida Sherafatmand (Malta) and Nemanja Boskovic (Serbia), will host their exhibit "Wrangle Wrap Wring" from tomorrow at Art Attic Gallery in Invercargill.
The group came together after Close, Alejandro and Hassan met in a pub in Sarajevo in 2022 where they found they shared a passion for creativity and art.
"I found her [Hassan] work and her approach and everything very interesting. And I was like `Yeah, I would love to meet her again and keep working with her," Close said.
That summer, she was organising an artist residency in Macedonia and thought Hassan and Alejandro would be the perfect fit for the project.
"It was two weeks of us kind of working on site, responding to the space, working together _ it was basically all improv.
Like we didn't bring work and then present it, everything was made there.
"So we kind of got to see each person's process, their way of approaching collaboration."
After the experience they kept in touch and last year, after Hassan spent four months in Invercargill on a residency, she discovered the Art Attic Gallery.
She thought it was the perfect space to bring the collective together and create something for it.
"So during that time spent in Invercargill, I came to all the exhibitions here and we developed this relationship and then I was like: `I think we can do this.'
"I was in Iraq and Kurdistan and I called Alex and I was like, `hey, Alex ... I went into this gallery. They're really cool people that run the gallery. I think there's something there and Alex said yes, we're going to do it _ full steam ahead," Hassan said.
The exhibit, which opens tomorrow, aims to bring a glimpse of the five artists' ways of coping, adapting and navigating different cultural codes and internal and external expectations in a world of information and geographic overload through different mediums including paintings, digital art, video, textile and sculptures.
"I think we all have a slightly different angle as to why we chose to do this, but generally it is somewhat around the same thing.
"I was personally really interested in what different perspectives do when they come together? What does that look like? Is it actually just a mess or can it be aesthetic? And is that OK?" Hassan said.
One of the biggest challenges for them was to work remotely, but they overcame this and now they were inviting people to come along to experience their art.
"We think that this process we've developed, it really reflects our process of trying to navigate these things in real life. It's more so about this process than whatever we come up with," Close said.
"We all do very different work, but it's kind of like that negotiation to find the balance. It's very challenging."
The Kollectiv: "Wrangle Wrap Wring". From January 17 to February 8 at Art Attic Gallery, 43 Tay St.
