Eddie Clemens

Eddie Clemens, Cognitive Reorientation, 2023

1986 Mitsubishi Debonair V3000 Regal car, metal, pumps, hoses, generator, and barge.

Nordic-noir crime shows have become a television mainstay. The long Scandinavian winters offer the right atmosphere of darkness, seclusion, and stoicism for murder and intrigue. Forbrydelsen (aka The Killing) gained international success when released in 2007 and captured Eddie Clemens’s attention. Originally created for Scape 2022 in Ōtautahi/Christchurch, his Cognitive Reorientation is a response to a climactic scene in Forbrydelsen, when a car is lifted by crane from a waterway, revealing the body of a missing woman. In the television show, the car’s excavation is a turning point, whereas Clemens stalls and suspends the spectacle. Water endlessly pours from the boot, bonnet, and doors of his 1986 Mitsubishi Debonair V3000 Royal, mounted high on a platform, with algae hanging from its door handles and hub caps. The car becomes a miraculous, dystopian water feature.

Eddie Clemens (b.1977) lives in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, where he completed his MFA at Elam School of Fine Arts in 2004. In 2009, he was Frances Hodgkins Fellow in Ōtepoti/Dunedin, where he developed the 2010 exhibition Delusional Architecture for the Hocken Gallery, responding to the Terminator movies and their breakthrough computer-generated imaging. His solo shows include Collector’s Edition Glitch, Adam Art Gallery, Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Wellington, in 2014; Clone Cities, Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, in 2016; and Resolution Venture, Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland, in 2023. He is working on Fibre-Optic Colonnade Car Wash, a permanent public work for Wellington Sculpture Trust.