Our top ten New Zealanders: Et Al

et al's installation 'restricted access' won the Walters Prize. Picture / Patrick Reynolds

* Et Al, Artist

The Auckland "collective" known as et al achieved something this year few artists have been able to do - she, it or they (et al prefers to be referred to in the plural) got people talking about art the length and breadth of the nation.

It started in July when Creative New Zealand announced et al would represent the country at next year's Venice Biennale. The cost of sending the artist, most recently known for an installation that featured a braying Portaloo, would receive $500,000 of public funding. The other side of the alleged controversy was that et al never does interviews and would not front to discuss the Venice decision.

And so they were off, a steamed-up Paul Holmes leading the charge on his television show, outraged that et al would not appear. He had to make do with shouting down Creative NZ head Peter Biggs.

Then the politicians bought into the nonsense, Act's Deborah Coddington attacking et al and Creative NZ in Parliament and the Prime Minister saying Creative NZ should be accountable for future funding decisions.

It all played nicely into et al's hands. Because not only had et al been selected for Venice, "they" had also been picked as a finalist in the biennial $50,000 Walters Prize at Auckland Art Gallery.

Et al's entry was an installation called restricted access. The grimly lit collection of exhausted technology and parodies of artistic analysis was underpinned by an irritating cacophony of tinny words - coming from a tiny little television featuring, yes, a distorted loop of the Holmes-Biggs interview.

Walters Prize judge, pre-eminent New York curator Robert Storr, almost immediately assessed et al's work as the "very intelligent" winner, topping a terrific year for the artist.