Cat Auburn (she/her) is an Aotearoa New Zealand artist living in Argyll, Scotland. Her art practice (sculpture, heritage crafts, textile, film, event, and writing) focuses on how cultural heritage is constructed, reinforced, and strategically employed. Artistic ‘making’ is how Cat explores complex interrelational dynamics between ‘self’ and ‘culture’, local and global, policymaking and those subject to policy. Her projects are developed in co-production with various collaborators, including: rural and equestrian communities; textile practitioners; heritage industry workers. She enjoys developing and delivering ambitious artistic projects that support both collaborators and authenticating audiences to engage in active questioning through artistic materials and practices.
Cat has recently completed an AHRC Northern Bridge Consortium PhD at Northumbria University (UK). Her doctoral research is a practice-based, autotheoretical exploration of the personal, political and social stakes of engaging with national identity and collective memory.
Cat is co-editor of the Special Issue of the journal Arts, titled Autotheory in Contemporary Visual Arts Practice. She is also the co-host of the podcast series, Thinking-With. The podcast is a long-form, unpolished conversation between Cat Auburn and Kyle Lewis, in which they think-with different ideas and people in each season.
In 2016, Cat’s exhibition, ‘The Horses Stayed Behind’ received the 2016 Award for Best Regional Art Exhibition at the Aotearoa New Zealand Museum Awards. This exhibition had a three-year national tour and was created during the 2014/2015 Tylee Cottage Artist Residency with the Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui, (NZ). Other residencies include D6 Culture in Transit (UK, 2019); Tyneside Cinema (UK, 2016); Olivia Spencer Bower Fellowship (NZ, 2010). Exhibitions include: TRIO Biennial (Brazil), Tyneside Cinema (UK), Baltic 39 (UK), Sarjeant Gallery (NZ), Dowse Art Museum (NZ), Te Manawa Museum (NZ), Waikato Museum (NZ), Tauranga Art Gallery (NZ). Cat’s 2018 short film, ‘Shaken’ (commission by Northern Film and Media in collaboration with Channel 4) was broadcast on national UK television in August 2018 and was officially selected for the 2018 Aesthetica Short Film Festival (UK).
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Qualifications
2023 PhD, AHRC Northern Bridge Consortium studentship at Northumbria University (UK).
Thesis title: ‘I leave everything to you’: an autotheoretical, practice-based exploration of the personal, political and social stakes of engaging with national identity and collective memory. Supervisor: Professor Christine Borland.
2016 Master of Fine Art, Northumbria University. (distinction)
2007 Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art, The University of Auckland. (distinction)
2004 Bachelor of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland.
2003 Certificate of Art and Design, Whitecliffe School of Art and Design.
Research / Innovation Grants
2024 Visual Artist and Craft Maker Award: Argyll and Bute in partnership with Creative Scotland.
2022 Creative New Zealand Grant: to create new work for ‘I leave everything to you‘.
2019 AHRC Northern Bridge Consortium PhD Studentship.
2018 Global Challenges Networking and Project Preparation Fund: Workshop in Amman, Jordan.
2017 Channel 4/Northern Film and Media: Random Acts Commission.
2017 Asia New Zealand Foundation: short grant to make new work in Japan for Preparing the Ground.
2015 Creative New Zealand Grant: to travel and create new work in Brazil for TRIO Biennale.
2014 Creative New Zealand Grant: in support of creating new work for The Horses Stayed Behind.
2013 Wellington City Council Grant: new work for The Courtenay Place Light Box Project.
2007 Joseph Raynes Scholarship for Fine Arts
2007 Auckland University Bursary Award.
2006 Denise Gerard Award for Fine Arts
2004 Millennium Undergraduate Award, NZ Federation of Graduate Women
Awards / Prizes / Residencies
2024 RSA Residencies for Scotland, Cove Park, Argyll and Bute, UK.
2024 Te Whare Hēra Artist Residency, Massey University and Wellington City Council, NZ.
2019 D6 – Culture in Transit, Research Residency, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
2016 Tyneside Cinema Graduate Artist in Residence, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
2016 Best Regional Art Exhibition, The Horses Stayed Behind, 2016 New Zealand Museum Awards.
2015 Northumbria University Bursary Award.
2014 Tylee Cottage Artist Residency, Whanganui, NZ.
2010 Olivia Spencer Bower Foundation Art Award, Christchurch, NZ.
2010 COCA Anthony Harper Art Award
2008 Finalist in the Wallace Art Awards
Exhibitions
2024
Approaching Home, (collaboration with Christine Borland) Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, NZ. two-person collab.
2022
Crying Cliffs, Masons Screen, Wellington, NZ. solo
2021
Carpet Territory, Gallery 36, Newcastle upon Tyne. group
2019
Turn of a Century, The Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui, NZ. group
Changing Practice: An ongoing un-learning of colonial heritage within arts practice, D6 – Culture in Transit, UK. solo
2018
The Horses Stayed Behind, Tauranga Art Gallery, Tauranga, NZ. solo
Shaken, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, UK. group
Wunderkammer, Milford Galleries, Dunedin, NZ. group
2017
Preparing the Ground, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. solo
The Horses Stayed Behind, Waikato Museum, Hamilton, NZ. solo
The Horses Stayed Behind, TeManawa Museum, Palmerston North, NZ. solo
The River Lie, (Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay), The Suter Gallery, Nelson, NZ. two-person collab
Post Landscape, (Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay), Bartley + Company Art, Wellington, NZ. group
2016
Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay, (collaboration with Estella Castle) Flatford Mill, National Trust, Suffolk, UK. two-person collab
Show and Tell, Milford Galleries, Dunedin, NZ. group
The Horses Stayed Behind, SCAPE Public Art, Christchurch, NZ. group
There Were Islands, Baltic 39, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. group
Shapeshifter, The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, NZ. group
2015
The Horses Stayed Behind, The Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui, NZ. solo
TRIO Biennale, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. group
Ways to Leave Your Lover, Bartley + Company Art, Wellington, NZ. solo
All That Glitters is Not Gold, The Vivian, Matakana, NZ. group
2014
When Your Neighbours Problems Become Your Own, Blue Oyster, Dunedin, NZ. solo
2013
Push Me, Pull You, Bartley + Company Art, Wellington, NZ. solo
The Auckland Art Fair, Auckland, NZ. group
After You, Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare O Rehua, Whanganui, NZ. group
Looking Up to You, (collaboration with Fiona Pardington) The Courtenay Place Light Box Project, Wellington, NZ. two-person collab
2012
Solo: Training Aids, The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, NZ. solo
Sugar High, Suite Gallery, Wellington, NZ. solo
2011
Of Monsters and Machines, Pop Up Gallery, Auckland, NZ. group
Crying Cliffs, Auckland Film Archive, Auckland, NZ. solo
2010
Uncanny Valley, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, NZ. group
NZ Sculpture OnShore, Auckland, NZ. group
COCA Anthony Harper Art Award, COCA, Christchurch, NZ. group
2009
Little Rain, City Art Rooms, Auckland, NZ. group
Decomposition – X years, Still Decaying, Whitespace Contemporary Art, Auckland, NZ. group
2008
NZ Sculpture OnShore, Auckland, NZ. group
Bridge Art Fair, Berlin, Germany. group
Wallace Art Awards, Aotea Centre, Auckland, NZ. group
Unlimited, City Art Rooms, Auckland, NZ. group
Metonymy, Cross Street Studios, Auckland, NZ. group
Kill the Cynic, Sanderson Gallery, Auckland, NZ. group
Reflecting Skin, City Art Rooms, Auckland, NZ. group
2007
Inbetween, George Fraser Gallery, Auckland, NZ. group
Vegetable Memory, Auckland Film Archive, NZ. group
2006
SmallBig, Gallery 146c, Auckland, NZ. group
2005
Nobody Knew They Were Robots, Stanbeth Gallery, Auckland, NZ. group
Conferences / Symposia / Presentations
2023 ‘Memory Studies Association Conference‘. Speaker at the MSA Conference hosted by Newcastle University. Title of presentation: Yours/Mine/Ours: Autotheory and Collective Memory. This paper explored the tensions and contradictions of engaging with memory as it oscillates between personal and collective modalities, as encountered through my artistic autotheoretical practice-based research into the Anzac legend.
2022 ‘Autotheory Conference 2022: Thinking through Self, Body and Practice‘. Speaker and workshop co-host with Grace Denton at the Autotheory Conference hosted at the University of Glasgow and Tramway Arts Venue, Glasgow, UK. ‘Autotheory: Thinking through Self, Body and Practice’ was held over two days at the University of Glasgow and explored autotheory across practices, mediums, disciplines, places and times. It included contributions from activists, artists, critics, curators, filmmakers, musicians, performers, scholars, writers, and those whose work engages with autotheory. Title of presentation: Risky Palimpsests: Plural-authorship in an autotheoretical art practice. Title of workshop: Processing Theory with our Hands.
2021 ‘RESISTANT ARCHIVES. Global Perspectives on the Archive as PUBLIC MATTER‘. Speaker at the Online Impulse Symposium hosted by the University of Münsterin. The symposium explored the contested concept of the archive as it is experienced today between analogue and digital techniques, between de-colonising imperatives and legal restrictions, between sustainability demands and the rethinking of exhibition formats in a state of transversal movement and constant flux. Title of presentation: ‘I Say Nothing: Speaking with Objects in the World War One Holdings at Glasgow Museums Research Centre’. Christine Borland & Cat Auburn.
2021 ‘On Civicness and Participating in Public Life through Art Practice‘. Speaker at a panel discussion in Berlin hosted by Contemporary HUM. This conversation explored the idea of ‘civicness’ and how it is tied to social responsibility within a global community, taken from the perspective of three artists from Aotearoa who actively taking part in public life through their practice.
2021 ‘ADD+ART‘. Speaker at a symposium event hosted by The University of Barcelona and IDENSITAT. The focus of the event was on art and social spaces in controlled, uncontrolled and isolated times. The collaborative project, ‘Carpet Territory’ was presented as a video, alongside panel discussions.
2020 ‘Reflections on Artmaking in the Centenary of World War‘ Speaker at an event hosted by Northumbria University that brought together artists, curators and community practitioners to reflect on the experience of commemorative art making in the centenary of World War One. The presentations and discussions focused on the impact of commemorative art marking on practitioners understanding of their own work, looking in particular at questions of responsibility, memory, community, and self-reflection, as well as how arts funding structures shape cultural and artistic responses to national commemorative events.
2019 ‘Creative Methods in Military Studies‘. Speaker at a one-day conference hosted by the Military, War and Security Group, Newcastle University, UK.
2018 ‘Creative Practice and Cultural Memory: Exploring First World War Heritage in the Middle East’. Speaker at a two-day workshop hosted at the British Institute in Amman (CBRL) in September 2018. Funded by Northumbria University through the Global Challenges Networking and Project Preparation Fund.
2017 ‘Doubtful Occasion‘, a symposium on active research led by Christine Borland at GRMC, Glasgow in relation to her project for Art Fund & 14-18 NOW WW1 Centenary Art Commission. Cat Auburn presents The Horses Stayed Behind – practice-led, centenary project in New Zealand. Glasgow, UK.
2014 The Lower North Island Curatorial Hui. Cat Auburn and Sarah McClintock present The Horses Stayed Behind. The Dowse Art Museum, Lower Hutt, NZ.
Selected Media
. The story of 10,000 horses: New Zealand heritage in the Levant, Cat Auburn, Council for British Research in the Levant, 20 December 2019.
. Preparing the Ground, Chloe Barker, Contemporary HUM, 22 April 2017.
. The River Lie, Sarah McClintock, The Suter Gallery, 2017, exhibition catalogue.
. Graduate Artist in Residence: Cat Auburn, Northern Stars documentary, January 2017.
. Constable’s Hay Wain – live! Standing Room Only. Radio New Zealand, National. Interview with Lynn Freeman, 7 Aug 2016.
. Episode One – The Horses Stayed Behind, Sarjeant Gallery Podcast, 2015.
. Tails of the Unexpected, Margo White. Art News. Winter 2015. pg 64 – 68.
