AUT grads win $15k Springboard Awards
Three AUT alumni are 2023 recipients of the annual Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Springboard Awards.
School of Art and Design graduates Tia Barrett and ‘Uhila Moe Langi Nai (Master of Visual Arts) and Sung Hwan ‘Bobby’ Park (Bachelor of Design) are among the seven award recipients.
Each recipient receives a $15,000 gift and is matched with a senior artist mentor from the Arts Foundation artist alumni and beyond.
Head of AUT’s School of Art and Design, Professor Mandy Smith, says she is delighted to see three graduates acknowledged by the Arts Foundation.
"These awards allow for immersive time as emerging artists and practitioners to continue working and developing their practices, within a mentored and supportive environment.
“Funding like this is vital for Aotearoa's, artists and designers, enabling the emergence of a growing body of practitioners, who represent our diverse and unique communities through their works,” Professor Smith says.
The Springboard Awards, which are now in their fourth year, provide support for seven early-career artists. Support includes the facilitation of a mentorship programme, which is promoted and documented by the foundation, and a $15,000 gift for each award recipient.
Recipient biographies
Tia Barrett
Tia Barrett is an emerging Māori moving image and photography practitioner, whose work is firmly grounded in celebrating her wahine Māori identity and deepening her connection to her whenua me o ngā tūpuna. Her thesis He Pounamu Ko Aū: Celebrating my mana wahine Māori narrative explores identity through a kaupapa Māori worldview – unfolding through moving image, pounamu pūrākau, mōteatea, experimental ambient soundscape and installation.
‘Uhila Moe Langi Nai
Multi-disciplinary visual artist ‘Uhila Moe Langi Nai has roots in Pelehake, Tonga and Auckland. Her work focuses on the Tongan koloa tu’ufonua ‘oku ‘iloa ko ia ko e ngatu mo e kupesi (collection of women’s wealth known as barkcloth and embroidered stencil). Her practice also looks at heliaki, the use of metaphoric language in Tonga. For 'Uhila, kupesi is a heliaki, but in forms and shapes rather than words, prompting her to wonder about the knowledge and wisdom embedded in their design and creation. Her practice also takes interest in the relationship between herself and the elders’ specialised knowledge and skills within their koloa (women’s wealth).
Sung Hwan ‘Bobby’ Park 박성환
Sung Hwan ‘Bobby’ Park 박성환 is a Korean-born visual artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau. He has worked with ceramics since 2016, with early works presented at the Emerging Practitioner in Clay Awards 2018 in Whanganui. His latest solo exhibition, BTM Complete in Reflection, was shown with Auckland Ceramic Potters in 2022. The works made use of various materials, in conjunction with ceramics, to create bullet proof helmets, as an exploration of queer experience in the Korean military.