The Persistence of Memory (1998)

"I made 'The Persistence of Memory' for an exhibition called 'The New Surrealism', first shown at The Honeymoon Suite, in Dunedin. It is a work about art, pathos, and nonsense. The video is basically a slide show and mimics the way I learnt about contemporary art at university - through slides and images in books. The Persistence of Memory was never an entirely earnest piece (although it is fraught with emotion). We knew even in the late nineties that as New Zealanders our experience of Fine Art was supposedly impaired because it was ‘second hand.’ Personally now that I have seen many great art works in the flesh, I’d like to say I’m amazed by how little that has changed my perception. I loved the reverie of the Ultravox song; my favorite moment in the video is when the raindrop falls into the picture frame, sending ripples fanning out over Monet’s famous water lily pond… This means nothing to be me, oh, Vienna…"