Join artist Mike Heynes in conversation with CIRCUIT Director Mark Willliams as they discuss the installation Proudly Brought To You In Standard Definition, now showing at CIRCUIT until 20 December.
Proudly Brought to You in Standard Definition is an installation by Mike Heynes that reuses mass produced plastic toys and kitset models to satirically critique Wellywood and its spectacular technologies. Featuring works made between 2005– 2025, the installation includes video, found objects, kinetic sculpture and screen printing.
Mike Heynes lives in Wellington New Zealand, home of Director Sir Peter Jackson’s Academy Award winning movie studios Wingnut Films, Weta Digital, and Park Road Post, colloquially known as ‘Wellywood’ in honour of their connections to Hollywood. Working “in the shadow of Wellywood”, Heynes’ practice offers a Situationist critique of this surrounding industry. Production strategies in Heynes' practice include appropriating movie-themed action figures to create rudimentary animations, juxtaposed with psychedelic imagery reminiscent of the 1960s. Writer Martin Patrick describes Heynes’ practice as examining “…the undercurrents of our never-ending sea of popular culture (which) wash ashore deceptively magical detritus, such that even as cycles of cultural production become less representative of the current mainstream it never completely disappears”.
