Former CHB artist Juliet Carpenter a finalist in Walters Prize

Juliet Carpenter is a Walters Prize finalist with her artwork, film installation EGOLANE.

Former CHB College student Juliet Carpenter has been announced as a finalist for the Walters Prize, Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest and most prestigious contemporary art award.

Carpenter attended Central Hawkes Bay College from 2004 to 2008, gained a BFA from the Elam School of Fine Arts in 2013, and in late 2018 moved to Germany to take a place in the film class of Frankfurt’s State Academy of Fine Arts/Städelschule.

Her work has featured in galleries and museums such as Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu and the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.

As one of the four finalists for the award, Juliet will present a reimagination of her nominated artwork, film installation “EGOLANE”, 2022, which was exhibited at Städelschule Rundgang. The work is an immersive film installation projected onto the windscreen of a 1997 Mitsubishi Legnum. The film, described as “intimate and disorienting” follows a woman travelling alone in a driverless car, charting her journey through despair, ecstasy, contemplation, and boredom, and reflecting on the contingency of death, desire and the limits of control.

To determine the Walters Prize winner, an international judge will be invited to New Zealand in October to view the artworks presented and assess their merits. The chosen judge will be an art professional with an international reputation and be a leading figure in the curation of contemporary art.

Artist Juliet Carpenter attended CHB College from 2004 to 2008. Photo / Agustin Farias

As part of the prize, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki will present an exhibition by the four artists who have been nominated for their outstanding contributions to contemporary art in New Zealand.

The Walters Prize is unique because it focuses on an outstanding body of work made within a two-year period, as opposed to the artist’s entire practice. The winner receives $50,000.

The prize is named after New Zealand artist Gordon Walters (1919–1995), a leading modernist, and was established in 2002.

Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki establishes the external jury two years before the exhibition. Regardless of an artist’s age, ethnicity or location, or in which part of the world it is presented in, their work needs to have exerted a remarkable impact or influence on the nature, perception or development of contemporary art in New Zealand.

Juliet Carpenter’s film installation EGOLANE is projected onto the windscreen of a 1997 Mitsubishi Legnum. Photo / Ivan Murzin.

The jury members for the 2024 Walters Prize are Robert Leonard, director, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Tendai Mutambu, independent curator and writer, Auckland; Melanie Oliver, curator of contemporary art, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū; Hanahiva Rose, curator of contemporary art at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

In a jury statement, they say: “We selected the four finalists for the 11th Walters Prize for projects they presented in 2020–22, a time of unsettled exhibition opportunities, disrupted by Covid lockdowns and restrictions on travel.

“Despite this, the artists presented extraordinary works that address the cultural, social, and political conditions of our time, and ask us to pay careful attention to the way histories are made, told, and maintained.

“Our selection looks to both senior and early-career artists to find new commentaries on issues of art and culture today. Their diverse projects were the culmination of formal, material and conceptual experimentation, with each artist making an outstanding contribution to contemporary art in Aotearoa.”