Hynds Foundation and Gillies Metaltech are excited to announce that Paula Collier and Zac Whiteside have been selected for the Crucible Artist Residency commencing in September 2025.
Paula Collier is a visual artist originally from Ōtautahi, now based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Her practice spans installation, sculpture and photography.
Interested in the dynamic relationship between materials, architectural scale, and unique light qualities of sites, Collier’s installations engage with the ongoing life cycles and active invisibility of spaces and materials. Through manipulating our perception of light and space, her work explores how this relates to the philosophical idea of what Carl Mika calls “the dual hiddenness and presence of an entity”, acknowledging the role of mystery and uncertainty within modes of perception and knowledge.
Her practice considers material memory, latency and potential as a determination “to recognise a sense of other in the presence and ongoing process of a material object” (Mika).
She approaches the role of the artist as a facilitator or conduit, aiming to meet the space and light in mutuality, searching for a material kinship between the architecture and the introduced objects or materials.
Her experience working as a textile artist in the film industry provides opportunities for incorporating repurposed or waste materials into her artwork, exploring their qualities beyond their intended practical use. Challenging Western notions of value through the use of everyday materials acts as a prompt to consider the inherited ideologies of material as a resource embedded in capitalist thinking, and to philosophically interrogate the relationship between ourselves and the material world we inhabit.
Collier studied sculpture at Elam School of Fine Art in Tāmaki Makaurau and in 2024 completed a Masters of Fine Arts at Massey University Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Her recent exhibitions are To Be Sure, We Are Speaking (The Engine Room, 2024), A Series of Actions and Observations (The Wellington Working Men’s Club, 2024) and Diurnal Aspect (play_station Gallery).
Zac Whiteside is an Ōtepoti-based artist working across sculpture, performance, and installation. His practice explores humour, labour, and the rituals of modern life through material contradiction, visual metaphor, and wordplay. Zac graduated with First Class Honours from the Dunedin School of Art in 2023 and is the co-director and curator of Pond Gallery, an artist-run space that supports early-career artists. He has recently exhibited in Through the Fray at Blue Oyster Art Project Space (Opened June 13th) and Piss at Pond Gallery (Opened June 27th), a group show he also curated.
@zacwhiteside
About the Crucible Artist Residency:
Located within the Historic Precinct of Ōamaru, and in an industrial context, the residency provides two artists with an opportunity to:
Artists are supported with a stipend of $650 per week, accommodation for the duration of the 12-week residency, 20 hours of technician support, and a subsidy for foundry materials utilised.