Gregory Bennett

Edifice I’ is an 8:30 minute experimental 3D animation situated in an art practice that that embraces 3D computer animation and the digital body to explore themes and tensions around nature and culture, the utopian and the dystopian, through the rendering of complex digital ecosystems. The term ‘edifice’ can refer to both a large, imposing building, and a long-established complex system of beliefs. ‘Edifice I’ is the latest in an ongoing series of works by the artist that imagine infinitely revolving Babel-like tower structures situated in an infinite void. Homogeneous human figures appear only intermittently, precariously overwhelmed or trapped by the, at times, unstable superstructure. The tower simulates at times a machine in perpetual motion, without obvious purpose. Although resembling a fortress, it is rendered as a permeable and contingent structure, at times in a state of unstable flux, an embodiment the fragility of utopian desire and impermanence of human endeavour.

Gregory Bennett is a New Zealand-born and based digital artist who explores conceptions of the utopian and dystopian through representations of the multiplied digital body. He utilises the medium of 3D animation software as his primary creative tool in a creative practice which encompasses video, motion capture, projection mapping, interactive media and virtual reality. His works are exhibited as projection or screen-based work in art galleries and large-scale outdoor public venues, as online work, or as part of curated screening programmes.

Bennett’s work has been exhibited internationally including in the USA, Hong Kong, China, Australia, and Europe. Exhibitions include real-fake.org.2.0, a 2016 survey of digital artists at the Bronx-ArtSpace, New York; the 2019 Rencontres Internationales, New Cinema and Contemporary Art in Par-is and Berlin; the juried exhibition at the 2016 International Symposium on Electronic Art in Hong Kong; the Supernova 2018 Digital Animation Festival in Denver, USA; and the Centre for Contemporary Photography in Melbourne, Australia. He was a finalist in the 7th Screengrab International Media Arts Award in Australia in 2015 and was selected for Narracje 2013, Installations and Interventions in Public Space in Gdansk, Poland, and the Video Contemporary exhibition at the 2015 Sydney Contemporary International Art Fair. His video work was also paired with Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Imaginary Prisons print series for a show at AALA Gallery, Los Angeles in 2018.

His work is represented in the collections of the Videotage Media Art Collection Hong Kong, Justin Art House Museum Collection Australia, the University of Auckland Art Collection, Chartwell Collection, J B Gibbs Trust Collection, James Wallace Arts Trust, Westpac Bank Art Collection as well as private collections in New Zealand and Australia.

Bennett is currently Head of Department for Digital Design and Visual Arts at the Auckland University of Technology School of Art and Design.