Present Surface of Tell

Comprising a collection of bas-relief plaster casts that act as synthesised fragments cast from what appears to be an archaeological dig, and a suite of diagrammatic drawings that explore systems and power structures within museums, Present Surface of Tell employs an archaeological model as a way to interpret or disrupt the museological model.

Dane Mitchell writes, “The archaeologist is an investigator whose systematic finds, pieced together, construct an image of history. Both ideological frameworks possess stratified layers that are connected. Strata are not stable and neither are the meanings of our museum collections, which are effectively our collective cultural memory”.

The installation acts as a partial remnant or index of the vast and horizontal expanse of cultural memory.

Since completing a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree at the Auckland Institute of Technology in 1998, Dane Mitchell has exhibited widely in New Zealand and internationally. Mitchell’s most recent exhibition projects include Remember New Zealand, Sao Paulo Biennal; Present Surface of Tell, Starkwhite, Auckland; History Now, Te Tuhi The Mark, Auckland; Cuckooborough, Westspace, Melbourne; Direct Line, Small Gallery, CalArts, LA; and Infiltrate, Sub Station, Singapore.

Reviews, Essays & Articles
Visual arts
Art Beat, The Press, 23 July 2005

New horizons
The Press, 20 July 2005
Blundell, Sally. 

Long time, good time all night long
Art Murmur, Avenues, Issue 19, September 2005
Wood, Andrew Paul. 

Dane Mitchell
Flash Art International, No. 244, October 2005