Brit Bunkley

Mark Amery, 2013: "Brit Bunkley’s No Phobia wryly suggests an apocalyptic raincloud hanging over the New Zealand landscape. Across the exhibition, a gargantuan spider sprawls the upper North Island; horrifyingly large creepy-crawlies sit atop dining chairs; a giant computer-rendered Avondale Spider is found rampaging down Jervois Road outside the Herne Bay gallery.

“Science fiction scenarios are often played out by way of horror stories that become engrained in the popular consciousness. Childhood nightmares from reading The Day of the Triffids or 1984, for example, remain with us as adults in the shadows, warning of the dangers that come with genetic modification or surveillance by unseen forces.

Playing with these shadows, Brit Bunkley’s art explores the tension between nature and culture – something increasingly mediated through computers. Working digitally, Bunkley plays unsettlingly with the quicksand material that is nature manipulated, altered and industrialised.”