Introducing Larnaca Biennale 2023 participating artist Wesley John Fourie: Based in Aotearoa New Zealand, Wesley John Fourie is an artist whose work explores the personal, tactile, and poetic. Using textiles as his primary medium, he aims to engage with a broad audience and spark discussions on topics like environmental conservation.
At the Larnaca Biennale 2023, Wesley’s installation “Aoraki,” a 1/1 scale model of New Zealand’s tallest mountain created through finger knitting, captured widespread attention
Encouraging future participants, Wesley emphasizes the value of applying to the Larnaca Biennale, citing its supportive atmosphere and the opportunity to showcase work to esteemed individuals in the art world.
Who is artist Wesley John Fourie? Share with us a few things about you and your work in general.
Hi! Well yeah , my name is Wesley John Fourie, and I’m an artist based in Aotearoa New Zealand.
I am interested in that which is personal, tactile, and poetic. I think art is a great platform for discussing things like the conservation of our natural environment, something that the work presented in the Larnaca Biennale speaks to directly.
I run a gallery in Otepoti Dunedin, a city on the “edge of the earth”. I make work that I hope resonates with a broad spectrum of people, predominantly using textiles as my medium of creation.
Your work ”Aoraki” located at Larnaca’s Municipal Gallery was among the most photographed works of the Larnaca Biennale 2023 Tell us a few words about it.
I made Aoraki on an artist residency in Nepal in 2020-2021. The director of the residency program and I were discussing the New Zealand landscape, when he asked what the tallest mountain was in NZ. When I relayed that Aoraki was 3724m tall, his response was “oh, that’s not big at all” (given that Nepal’s tallest mountain is well over double that in height). My immediate response, besides wanting to say “#$%&!’’ was that I had to show him just how big that mountain is, so I set out on creating a 1/1 scale model of it, rendered in finger knitting.
You have visited Larnaca for your installation procedures although New Zealand is far away! Tell us about your trip to Cyprus and your overall impression of Larnaca and Larnaca Biennale?
I came to Cyprus through the kind support of the Jan Warburton Charitable Trust- without her help I would have never made it there so I need to start this with that. I loved Larnaca, and Cyprus in general. Being from an island nation too myself I was fascinated with the similarities of the two states due to their geographic distances. There are also plenty of things which separate the two island nations- Cyprus definitely had much more of a European feel to it – I was delighted to see so many people at the opening, something which is less common here in Aotearoa. Cyprus has the European sensibility of recognizing the value of art in society, something I hope New Zealander’s, and our conservative “#$%&!’’ government, comes to recognize soon.
Every day I was there I swam in the sea, relishing the fact that the temperature allowed for this (the average temperature of the waters surrounding Dunedin is 8c).
Really, I can’t rave enough about Cyprus, I can’t wait to go back.
A message you would like to send to artists that will apply in the future for participation in the Larnaca Biennale.
Try! The worst thing is that you are declined. An ex of mine who is a well-established artist told me once that for every ten proposals you send out, you’ll be lucky if you get one. Larnaca is a beautiful place, the team at Larnaca Biennale are incredibly supportive, and I rate my experience working with them among the highlights of my artistic career. So yeah, give it a go. Even if you’re rejected, it gets your work in front of people who are worth their salt through the application process.
