Michael Nicholson

Visual Language Games (2006)

28 min 8 secSingle channel / Digital Video / Colour / Sound

"More retrospective than biographical, this documentary provides a chronology of the artist's work in the visual arts field from 1947, when he abandoned a military career to follow an artistic path.  As philosophers play games with words to show how propositions come to have meaning, similarly Nicholson plays with the visual language of the fine arts community. Setting up simple conditions for the performance of abstract elements in two and three dimensions, he works with them to the point where, he says, the work comes to life as a spell that addresses the cultural cosmos."

Artist's statement

Ngā ataata nā Michael NicholsonOther works by Michael Nicholson

CIRCUIT is the
leading voice
for artist moving image
practice
in Aotearoa New Zealand,
distributing works,
critical review and
dialogues
which reflect our unique, contemporary
South Pacific context.

Ko CIRCUIT te māngai
mō ngā mahi toi kiriata
o Aotearoa, e tuku
atu ana i ngā mahi toi,
i ngā arotakenga
me ngā whakawhitinga
kōrero e kitea ai
ngā āhuatanga
motuhake o tō tātou noho i te ao hou ki
Te Moananui-a-Kiwa.