A Winter’s Evening with Marianna Simnett

“I don’t want art to just decorate… Yet the aim has never been to shock,” Marianna Simnett says, “I want to create an internal shift in someone. More than the gore, what is more frightening about my work are the leaps between logic.” Artnet, 2021.

Marianna Simnett has gained global attention for her visceral, theatrical works, which draw on storytelling and folklore conventions. CREATURE is her first New Zealand exhibition and her largest solo show to date. First presented at Brisbane’s Institute of Modern Art (IMA) in 2020, it surveys her video and sculpture from the last six years and includes her surreal film, The Bird Game.

Simnett joins New Zealand audiences via Zoom. She will be in conversation with Noelle McCarthy. In this event, they’ll discuss avian sleep, trauma, catharsis, censorship and more.

Mulled wine and an opportunity to see and contemplate CREATURE will also be on offer during this special mid-winter event.

Marianna Simnett (b. 1986) completed her MA at the Slade School of Art in 2013. Her films, installations, drawings, and sculptures challenge the way bodies are perceived and imagined. Simnett was the joint winner of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Artists in 2020, she won the Jerwood / FVU Award in 2014 and was shortlisted for the Jarman Award in 2017. Her work has been shown in many museums and galleries internationally.

Noelle McCarthy is a writer and an interviewer. She makes podcasts as Bird of Paradise Productions, alongside her husband the writer John Daniell. Her first book, a memoir, will be published in 2022.