DONNA CONLON United States of America / Panama
Auckland Art Gallery - NEW Gallery

My work is a socio-archaeological inquiry into my immediate surroundings and takes form as video, performance, installation, and ephemeral sculpture. I use ordinary objects and images from my daily life and local environment to reveal the idiosyncrasies of human nature and the contradictions integral to our contemporary lifestyle.

I have used damaged trees and plants that I encountered in the woods, insects that have flown into my studio, lost shoes, and garbage from the streets and sidewalks to describe and question human behaviour, especially the conflicts we have within our urban and natural environments and with each other.

The video Coexistence features leaf-cutter ants, common to tropical Panamá, where I live. Leaf-cutter ants cut bits of leaves from plants and carry them to their underground nests to be used as compost on which they cultivate mutualistic fungi to feed their young. I took advantage of their willingness to pick up and carry leaf-like pieces of paper, and gave them artificial leaf-fragments painted with peace signs and the flags of the 191 countries which at that time (in 2003) belonged to the United Nations.

"The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction." - Jawaharlal Nehru

- Donna Conlon

Background

Born in Atlanta, United States of America in 1966, Donna Conlon lives in Panama City. Trained as a Biologist, Conlon commenced her artistic career as a sculptor, and in recent years has expanded her practice to include video, installation, photography and performance art. Recent solo exhibitions include Trash Trees, Nuevo ESPACIO/ARTE Contemporáneo, Panama City, 2004; Más me dan, Jacob Karpio Galería, San José, 2006 and Coexistence, Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art, Israel, 2006. In 2003, she was the recipient of the residency prize at the Caribbean Biennial, Dominican Republic; gaining second prize in the First Central American Emerging Artist Prize, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, San José, 2003. Conlon's work was shown in the 4th Biennial of Visual Arts of the Central American Isthmus, Panama in 2004, winning first prize. Other recent exhibitions include the 7th Panamanian Biennial of Art, 2005; Always a Little Further, Arsenale, 51st Venice Biennale, 2005; Warp and Weft, Latin American Pavilion, Italo-Latin American Institute, 51st Venice Biennale, 2005; This is America, Centraal Museum, Utrecht, 2006; Historias Animadas, CaixaForum, Barcelona, 2006; Biennale Cuvée: Weltauswahl der Gegenwartskunst, OK Centrum für Gegenwartskunst, Linz, 2006 and Altered States, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2006. Her practice is profiled in the catalogue that accompanied Always a Little Further.

www.donnaconlon.com